Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is a space probe made by the European Space Agency that will explore Jupiter's major moons, mostly just Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. It is powered by solar panels, like NASA's Juno (spacecraft).[1]

The spacecraft launched on 14 April 2023. It will reach Jupiter in July 2031 after four gravity assists and eight years of travel.[2]

It will fly near the moons before going into orbit around Ganymede.[3]

Instruments onboard JUICE[4]
JUICE under- construction

JANUS- An optical camera system

MAJIS- Moon and Jupiter imaging Spectrometer

GALA- Ganymede laser Altimeter

J-Mag- A magnetometer for JUICE

RPWI- Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation

UVS- UV imaging Spectrograph

SWI- Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument

RIME- Radar for Icy Moons Exploration

PEP- Particle Environment Package

3GM- Gravity & Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons

History

Juice builds on the previously proposed Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM-Laplace), a planned collaborative mission between ESA and NASA that would have carried out an in-depth study of the Jovian system and its icy moons. It is now foreseen that the Juice and NASA Europa Clipper spacecraft will be exploring the Jovian system simultaneously.[4]

Milestones JUICE will Achieve
  • It will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon in the outer solar system(Ganymede)
  • Juice’s flyby of the Earth-Moon system, known as a Lunar-Earth gravity assist (LEGA), is a world first: by performing this maneuver — a gravity assist flyby of the Moon followed just 1.5 days later by one of Earth — Juice will be able to save a significant amount of propellant.[4]

Space-craft Structure

Three-axis stabilized with 10 solar panels and a 2.5-metre-long High Gain Antenna, with a dry mass of approximately 2400 kg and a wet mass (including fuel) of approximately 6000 kg. Each solar panel measures about 2.5 m x 3.5 m; with five on each side of the spacecraft deployed as two distinctive cross-shaped arrays, these total an area of about 85 square meters.

Journey

Juice will spend approximately eight years cruising to Jupiter, during which it will complete fly-bys of Venus, Earth and the Earth-Moon system. It will reach Jupiter in July 2031; six months before entering orbit around Jupiter, Juice will begin its nominal science phase. The spacecraft will go on to spend many months orbiting Jupiter, completing fly-bys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and finally conducting an orbital tour of Ganymede.[4]

Details
Details about the JUICE mission
Life time 4yrs.
Launch Kourou, French guinia
Rocket Ariane 5
Launch date April 13, 2023
Launch Time 12:15UTC (8:15am EDT) (5:35pm IST)

References
  1. Greicius, Tony (2015-02-13). "Juno - Mission to Jupiter". NASA. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  2. "European Space Agency: Blast off for Jupiter icy moons mission". BBC News. 14 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  3. "Juice factsheet". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  4. "Juice factsheet". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
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