ESA JUICE Mission to be launched today!

If you are interested in following the launch event, it will occur today, April 13th 2023 at 12:15 UTC (8:15 a.m. EDT). Follow the live event here.

But if you are reading this after the launch, or if you want more information about the mission... just keep reading.

JUICE stands for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer and will need about eight yers to reach Jupiter. Launched onboard an Ariane 5 rocket from ESA's Spaceport in Kourou (French Guiana), the spacecraft will enter Jupiter's orbit around January 2030. During the first phase of the mission, which will last about two and a half years, the magnetosphere and the atmosphere of the giant planet will be studied: the spacecraft hosts ten instruments onboard!

Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Then, the target will restricted to three of the 79 (yes, seventy nine!) moons: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

One of the most interesting aspects of this mission will be the way the spacecraft will be able to observe such a large number of spots. As it happens in almost all space missions that travel outside of Earth's atmosphere, it will be only partially propelled by chemical fuel. Thanks to the expected 35 fly-bys with Jupiter's moons, in addition the fly-bys with Earth and Venus at the beginning of the mission, trajectory will be corrected multiple times, allowing the spacecraft to observe a large number of regions both on Jupiter and on the three moons.

During its operative life and partially during the coasting orbital legs, the spacecraft will be kept alive and operative by solar panels: 85 square meters of solar panels are installed.

Due to the strong magnetic field of the planet, the polar regions will be explorend only for a brief time span, to preserve the scientific instruments from damage. However, these brief fly-bys will also allow the exploration of the icy surface of Europa that has already revealed some of its features to NASA's Juno mission some months ago.

Surface features of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

In the following eight months, Ganymede will be the favorite subject for Juice's exploration and also the target for the impact of the spaceraft itself, which will mark the end of ESA's JUICE Mission.

We will talk more about ESA's JUICE Mission in the next SpaceInfo Newsletters, so if you want to know more and stay current about this mission and other, join the SpaceInfo Club here. Membership is free!

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See you soon!