SPACE — The European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is scheduled to launch on Thursday, April 13, 2023. It will embark on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, expected to arrive at the gas giant planet in July 2031.
JUICE will make observations of Jupiter and its three major moons known to have oceans; Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. The alien observer will peer into the Jovian system in great detail.
Jupiter orbits about 444 million miles or 715 million kilometers from Earth, so spacecraft travel there is not easy. However, other missions have traveled from Earth to Jupiter before, and it took a lot less time than JUICE had planned.
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As it turns out, one of the main factors that determines the travel time to Jupiter is the purpose of the mission. The travel time for spacecraft flying past Jupiter is not the same as for those going into orbit on long-haul missions.
The first spacecraft to make the journey from Earth to Jupiter was NASA’s Pioneer 10, which launched on March 3, 1972. The Pioneer flew by Jupiter on December 3, 1973, meaning it reached the gas giant in just 640 days, less than two years. Pioneer 11 clocked a shorter time on its flight path, reaching Jupiter in 606 days.
Meanwhile, the spacecraft that will orbit takes longer because it has to walk slowly when it is close enough to the planet to be caught by Jupiter’s gravity. JUICE will travel for eight years through deep space. Previously, NASA’s Galileo mission took about six years to Jupiter, launching in October 1989 and arriving in orbit in December 1995. NASA’s Juno spacecraft also orbited, launching in August 2011 and reaching its destination in July 2016.
The difference in travel time for the Jupiter orbiting spacecraft is caused by several factors. For example, the distance between Earth and Jupiter has varied greatly over time. In addition, orbiter missions do not take direct paths to giant planets. They take scenic travel routes around the inner solar system, flying past other planets to gain gravity-boosting speed-boosting assistance and slashing trajectories.
For example, Galileo traveled about 2.5 billion miles (4 billion km) to reach the gas giant. It takes gravitational assistance from Venus, Earth, and even the asteroid Gaspra along the way. JUICE will implement a similar strategy with Galileo.
The JUICE mission will perform a series of complex gravity assist maneuvers. “Starting from one year after launch, JUICE will take the gravitational assistance of the moon and Earth, at the same time to get extra energy,” said ESA scientist, Alessandro Atzei during a JUICE press conference on April 6. Source: Space.com
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