The JUICE mission: Observations of Ganymede’s aurorae with the Galileo and Cassini probes
Some of Jupiter’s icy moons are thought to harbour liquid water underneath their predominantly water-ice surfaces — potentially providing an environment for some form of life to have evolved. In the mid-1990s, NASA’s Galileo probe provided hints of such a water ocean on Ganymede and, more convincingly, Europa. Further evidence came in 2015 from Hubble Space Telescope observations of Ganymede’s aurorae1, which are created by its magnetic field similar to how Earth’s geomagnetism produces the aurorae borealis and australis.
For at least nine months, Jupiter’s main engine will run again to enter the atmosphere around the world’s most famous observatory, an altitude of 500 kilometers. Scott is a planetary scientist at the Southwest research institute in San Antonio, Texas. The principal investigator for the NASA mission to Jupiter says that in order to get trapped you need to go slow around the planet’s largest moon, Ganymede. Jupiter pulls you away if you are moving too fast.
The Southwest Research Institute astronomer says that their radar instrument was designed to see through ice on the moons for the first time with a radiometer. We can look back on the data from their data set.
When the Galileo probe finished its work, it dove into Jupiter’s depths and burned up in the gas giant’s atmosphere. The same happened with the Cassini mission, which plunged into the frozen planet in the fall of 2017. It is expected that Juice will fall into Ganymede in about 2034 or a few years later.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) craft is currently positioned atop an Ariane 5 rocket at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and is set to launch at 9:15 local time (12:15 coordinated universal time) on 13 April. “There is no launch window, only one launch instant,” said programme director and launch operator Véronique Loisel at Arianespace, during a press briefing in Kourou last week.
Such a precise lift-off time is required to insert the spacecraft into the correct orbit around the Sun, explained Loisel, who is based in Évry, France. If the launch has to be postponed because of poor weather or other reasons, the next opportunity will come around 24 hours later.
Introducing Juice into the Solar System: The European Space Agency’s Double Fly-by to the Outer Solar System and the Launch of Europa Clipper
The European Space Agency plans on sending a probe towards the outer Solar System in a year if everything goes according to plan. The double fly-by will need “the most accurate gravity-assisted maneuver ever done”, said the engineer at the briefing. Atzei is based at the agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice. The wait to arrive at Jupiter for Juice was much longer.
Eight years will be needed to reach Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. During its lengthy cruise, the spacecraft will utilize some gravitational slingshots as it flies by Earth, our moon and Venus to help with the journey.
Meanwhile, NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, launching in 2024, is expected to reach Jupiter in April 2030 and conduct nearly 50 flybys of Europa, eventually reaching just 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the moon’s surface.
In the 1970s, NASA launched Pioneer and Voyager missions and followed them up with dedicated Jupiter missions like Galileo and the Juno probe. Since 2016 she has been circling Jupiter and flying by some of its moons.
Although the three moons are encased in thick ice shells, interior heating could be taking place at each moon’s core — and that warmth could make the interior oceans possible habitats for past or existing life.
Previous missions like Galileo and Cassini, which visited Saturn and its moons, confirmed that liquid water can be found on planets and moons far away from the sun — and that water is likely to exist under the surface.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/13/world/esa-jupiter-juice-mission-launch-scn/index.html
Juice: A Spacecraft to Search for Habitability in Exoplanets and Accreting Giant Objects on Extrasolar Planets
According to the research professor, the understanding of where to search for habitability has changed in the last 20 years.
When thinking about life on Earth, we can understand that liquid water, a heat source and organic material are required for stable life on the planet.
“With Juice, we want to confirm there’s liquid water in these moons, confirm their heat sources. The instruments will also be able to sense organic material on the surface. She said it was putting all of those ingredients together.
Juice’s truck-size spacecraft has been designed to survive a long journey to Jupiter — and it has to survive the extremes of the gas giant’s environment once it arrives. The spacecraft will be protected from the most sensitive electronics with lead-lined vaults and two cross-shaped solar panels.
The most critical moment is when the first flyby of Ganymede takes place. The first two or three flybys are when we will confirm the existence of an ocean.