European Space Agency’s JUICE Probe Achieves Major Milestone Despite Antenna Issues: Journey to Jupiter’s Icy Moons Continues

In addition, data from an instrument for the study of radio waves and plasma, in which two departments of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic participate: the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and the Institute of Astronomy, on scientists from the Space Agency of Europe (ESA) has recently arrived. ) center – and they keep coming.

In the end SUIT (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) start on April 14, 2023 from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana, successfully deployed large solar panels and gradually brought ten scientific instruments to life. Since then, it has been moving through the solar system to its final destination, the frozen moon of the planet Jupiter.

The probe was guided back to Earth by ESA operators because the Ariane 5 launch vehicle could not accelerate the six-tonne probe enough to send it on a direct path to Jupiter last year. Therefore, they had to use the meeting with the Moon and the Earth for a gravitational slingshot, which will significantly change the trajectory of the probe and send it to Venus.

It will send it “back” to Earth in August 2025, which will lead it to the last attraction sequence in September 2026. In January 2029, the probe will fly by the Earth again, which will send it on its way to Jupiter – it will arrive there in July 2031.

So far, however, it has been true that, apart from a few short periods of test measurements, the study’s instruments have been silent during flight. The position was only changed by the first gravitational shift, when the Moon directed the probe towards the Earth. The probe passed just before midnight on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, over Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

Last week, scientific teams were able to turn their instruments in the environment of outer space near our planet.

“The first data from the flyby of the Earth’s magnetosphere excited us. It is a testimony to the excellent work of our engineers and colleagues from cooperating research centers and business enterprises,” said the scientific director of the Czech team Ondřej Santolík from the Department of Space Physics of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

“We have successfully completed the opening of the ping-pong area,” said Santolík. “We can now focus on the analysis of detailed measurements stored in the auditor’s memory during the fly through the Earth’s magnetosphere and that should gradually come to us,” he said.

The measurement of several components of the electric and magnetic field is the basis for the analysis of polarization and propagation of electromagnetic waves, which will later bring the Czech instrument close to the icy mountains of the planet Jupiter.

Experts want to study the surroundings of these mysterious moors. Beneath their icy surface, the oceans hide liquid water where the conditions may be suitable for life.

Scientists and technicians from the Department of Space Physics of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic participate in the device for the study of radio and plasma waves. They designed and, with the help of the Czech space industry, built an electromagnetic wave analyzer at audible frequencies. They are responsible for managing and handling the data received.

Technicians from the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic designed and built the power source of the donated device.