The European Space Agency (ESA) goes to Jupiter – and hopes to find aliens. ESA has carried out the largest launch in its history, marking the start of a new mission from the spaceport in French Guiana. The JUICE mission, which was canceled due to weather conditions the other day, was carried out today at 15:14.JUICE launched
The mission, called JUICE or Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, will make observations of both the planet itself and its icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. These moons are assumed to be covered in ice and have huge oceans beneath their surfaces. These giant liquid masses are thought to harbor life.
JUICE will descend within 200 km of some of these satellites and send the data it has obtained to us. It will collect data with a high-resolution optical camera called Janus, a spectrometer, an ice-penetrating radar, a magnetometer, and a total of 10 instruments. JUICE weighs about 6 tons and has a fairly large mass. Therefore, it will take advantage of the gravitational force of other celestial bodies several times to gather the energy to reach the Jovian system. After launch, JUICE will pass by Earth three times as well as Venus before entering orbit around Jupiter in 2031.JUICE will study Ganymede, Europa and Callisto from 2031 to 2034. In the final year of its mission, JUICE will orbit Ganymede, but it will be a delicate maneuver. Launched with the Ariane 5 rocket, JUICE’s journey will take 8 years. Meanwhile, JUICE will also undertake a complementary mission to NASA’s Europa Clipper, which will launch in 2024. These two spacecraft will carry different instruments and together they will study the Jupiter system.
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