The outer solar system will soon have a new probe ready to launch as a mission to study Jupiter’s moons.
The European Space Agency’s Icy Moon Explorer mission, or JUICE, is due to launch in a few months, so the spacecraft is now being packed at its test site in Toulouse, France, to be flown to the launch site in French Guiana.
The spacecraft recently completed its final phase of testing, including a thermal vacuum test to ensure it can withstand the freezing temperatures of space, and a system validation test where immediate post-launch steps, such as deploying booms and arrays, in space will be simulated. The space.
The mission aims to study Jupiter’s three largest moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, each of which is believed to have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts.
Digitartlends reported that the presence of liquid water makes each of these moons a potential target in the search for life beyond Earth, so JUICE will study each one using cameras and spectrometers.
It will also learn about Jupiter’s local environment, such as Jupiter’s magnetosphere and plasma environment.
The spacecraft will go on a long journey, first traveling to Jupiter for eight years before entering Ganymede’s orbit.
This will be the first time a spacecraft has orbited a moon other than Earth.
The mission will do a series of complex flybys of planets in the inner solar system to put them on track, then it may fly past an asteroid before reaching the Jovian system and do a series of flybys to get there. Let it approach for several months.
“This is the largest deep space mission we’ve ever launched, and it should gracefully circle the moons of the largest planet in the solar system using fewer than 35 launches,” said Andrea Acumazzo, the mission’s flight operations director. in the current situation. “JUICE exploration of Jupiter and its moons will require us to perform a decade of operations that we have not done before, and many of them may miss. During these simulation weeks, we will be dealing with every possible problem, so we can handle it. any location in space. “
This mission is scheduled to start in April this year.
