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In April 2023, Europe will launch an unmanned space probe to closely examine Jupiter’s largest moons. Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was developed by the European Space Agency ESA and should arrive at the gas giant Jupiter in July 2031. After that, the space probe will closely study the Jupiter moons Ganymede and Europa, among other things, so that JUICE should also become the first space probe to orbit a moon of another planet.
More than 2,000 people from 23 countries
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was built at the European aerospace company Airbus Defense and Space in Friedrichshafen and will weigh six tonnes at launch. The spacecraft is equipped with eleven scientific instruments including cameras, spectrographs, a radar instrument and a magnetometer. With these instruments, scientists want to learn more about the hidden oceans on some of Jupiter’s moons, as well as to study the composition of these moons in depth. In addition, they also want to study the magnetic fields of the moon Ganymede and Jupiter to see how they interact. Thanks to gigantic solar panels, which have a combined surface area of 85 square meters, the spacecraft will be supplied with energy during its long journey to Jupiter and the study of the Jupiter moons. These large solar panels together generate 800 watts of energy, despite the fact that the sunlight at Jupiter is already 25 times weaker than the sunlight near Earth. To communicate with the Earth, JUICE was equipped with a satellite dish with a diameter of 2.5 meters. The six-tonne space probe must eventually be launched on April 13, 2023 from the European launch site in French Guiana using a powerful European Ariane 5 rocket. More than 2,000 people in 23 countries and from 18 scientific institutions and 83 companies have worked on the JUICE project in recent years. The US and Japanese space agencies have also provided hardware for the JUICE mission.
Overview scientific instruments
- Jupiter, Searcher of Loves and Children Everywhere (JANUS)
- Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer (MAJIS)
- UV Imaging Spectrograph (UVS)
- Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument (SWI)
- Ganymede Laser Altimeter (GALA)
- Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME)
- JUICE-Magnetometer (J-MAG)
- Particle Environment Package (PEP)
- Radio and Plasma Wave Investigation (RPWI)
- Gravity and Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons (3GM)
- Planetary Radio Interferometer and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE)
Photo: ESA
Long journey to Jupiter
JUICE’s journey to Jupiter will take no less than eight years. During this journey, the European space probe will make several flybys of the Earth and the planet Venus. In October 2029, JUICE will fly past the asteroid 223 Rosa. Ultimately, JUICE should arrive at the gas giant Jupiter in July 2031, after which the spacecraft should make a first flyby of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. A year later, in July 2032, JUICE will fly past Jupiter’s moon Europa for the first time, after which the spacecraft will examine Jupiter’s polar regions and magnetic field. While studying Jupiter’s moon Europa, scientists want to learn more about the cracks in the moon’s frozen surface and the strange geysers that fling water into space. In December 2034, JUICE should finally orbit the moon Ganymede and then fly in 2035 at an altitude of only 500 kilometers above the surface of Ganymede. This will be the first time that a spacecraft will be in fixed orbit around a moon of another planet. While in orbit around Ganymede, JUICE will examine the composition and magnetic field of Jupiter’s largest moon. Ganymede has a diameter of 5 268 kilometers and is the only planetary moon with a magnetic field. Like Jupiter’s smaller moon Europa, Ganymede has a deep subsurface ocean that may support primitive life. The many planned flybys of Jupiter and its moons are not without risk as radiation can destroy the spacecraft’s instruments and the immense gravitational pull of the giant planet Jupiter can disrupt JUICE’s flight path.
Photo: ESA
MAJIS: Belgian contribution to JUICE
MAJIS (Moons And Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer) is an instrument onboard JUICE that is a visible and infrared imaging spectrograph, operating from 400 nm to 5.70 µm, with a spectral resolution of 3-7 nm. This instrument can observe tropospheric clouds and small gas species on Jupiter and examine the composition of ice and minerals on the surfaces of the icy moons. The spatial resolution is 75 m on Ganymede and about 100 km on Jupiter. This instrument was developed by the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in France in collaboration with the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA) and the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB).
