TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Spaceship Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) belonging to the European Space Agency has arrived at the European spaceport in Guyana, France, in preparation for final launch. The JUICE mission is Europe’s mainstay for studying the moons Jupitersuch as Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede.
JUICE departed from the Airbus facility in Toulouse, France, on February 9, 2023, and has been unloaded at the Kourou spaceport. The 6,200 kilogram spacecraft will go through final checks and be refueled ahead of launch with the Ariane 5 rocket.
The mission is scheduled to lift off on April 13, 2023. The journey is expected to take eight years to Jupiter to observe its icy moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede.
The spacecraft is carrying 10 scientific payloads and will make 35 lunar flybys, studying its magnetic field and looking for clues about conditions in its subsurface ocean and whether these have the potential to support life.
JUICE will finally enter orbit around Ganymede in 2034 for the final part of its mission and become the first spacecraft to orbit a moon satellite other than Earth’s.
Once in space, JUICE will deploy a massive solar array with a total area of 85 square meters, which will be needed to power the spacecraft as it orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 778 million kilometers from the sun.
JUICE was selected by ESA as mission flagship in 2012 as part of the Cosmic Vision program. NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Israel Space Agency are also contributing to the mission. NASA, meanwhile, is working to prepare the Europa Clipper mission for launch in 2024.
SPACE
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