Four keys and a curiosity of the Juice mission that leaves today for Jupiter

The Juice mission lifts off today at 12:15 GMT from the European Space Agency (ESA) complex in French Guiana. Their distant destination, eight years from now, is the gas giant Jupiter and its three icy moons, to study their possible habitability.

Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), equipped with ten instruments and with Spanish participation, is one of the great ESA missions, to which 1.6 billion euros have been dedicated, to learn more about Jupiter and three of its moons that could hold water. These are some keys to the mission.

1.- Why Jupiter?

Jupiter, with its many satellites, is a miniature solar system, studying its complex environment in depth will help to understand what a typical gas giant planet is like, how it formed and how it works.

But it has many other interesting features, especially three of its moons: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede, under whose icy crusts it is believed that there may be oceans of liquid water. Juice will explore these worlds and investigate whether life ever arose in these oceans.

2.- How long does it take to get to Jupiter?

Eight years. Everything will start 27 minutes and 45 seconds after the launch of the Ariane 5 in which Juice travels. At that moment the probe will separate and begin a long journey on a path that is far from straight, because to achieve the necessary momentum and save maximum fuel it will have to rely on the help of gravity from the Earth, the Moon and Venus.

On a path that seems to take him away from the fifth planet in the solar system, Juice will perform several gravity assists. The first in August of next year, when it will approach the Earth and the Moon; in 2025 it will need the boost from Venus, and between 2026 and 2029 twice as much from Earth.

The probe, with ten solar panels and a weight of about 6 tons, will reach Jupiter in July 2031, where it will operate in a hostile environment, with high radiation, extreme temperatures, strong magnetic fields and little light.

3.- Can Juice detect life?

The mission is not equipped to detect life, but designed to find out if there might be places around Jupiter, in the interiors of icy moons, where the necessary conditions (water, essential biological elements, energy and stability) exist to support life. , as explained by ESA.

4.- Why is the moon Ganymede your main objective?

Ganymede is, for ESA, a unique and fascinating object, not only because it is the largest moon in the solar system, but also because it is the only one with an internal magnetic field and a unique geological history.

The probe will fly over this icy moon twelve times to explore its magnetic field, hidden ocean, its complex core, ice content, crust and its interaction with Jupiter, as well as its possible habitability.

There Juice will become the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than ours and after studying it, when it runs out of fuel, it will crash into it in a controlled manner, ending the mission.

5.- A curiosity:

The Ariane 5 aboard which Juice is traveling sports a drawing representing the mission on its cap and it was chosen by ESA in a children’s contest held in 2021. The image is the work of Yaryna, a Ukrainian girl who is ten years old today and represents a child version of Jupiter with its three icy moons, Earth and Juice.

Source: EFE