[ad_1]
After having anticipated it a few years ago, ESA announces that the JUICE mission directed towards the gaseous giant Jupiter will probably come to life as early as April this year. The next-generation space probe will join NASA’s Juno orbiter in studying the planet.
JUICE stands for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer and the purpose of the spacecraft will be to perform detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large moonsand, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, taking advantage of its rich endowment composed of 10 main scientific instruments. This is how it is described by the European Space Agency.
The mission intends to analyze these ocean-bearing moons both as planetary objects and as possible habitats for life. Furthermore, it will deeply explore Jupiter’s complex environment and study the entire Jovian system as the archetypal gas giants of the Universe. Juice will achieve several firsts in the Solar System.
Some records will also be set, since JUICE will in fact be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than ours, or Ganymede, which is also the largest moon of Jupiter and the internal solar system. But that’s not all, as it was reported that on the way to Jupiter it will be carried out the first lunar-Earth gravitational slingshot to conserve propellant.
There will also be room for one last time: Juice will be launched with an Ariane 5 from the ESA Spaceport in Kourou but it will be his last trip, as the new rocket, Ariane 6, will begin to be used from subsequent missions.
Meanwhile, the latest developments tell us that JUICE’s spacecraft has arrived safely at the European Spaceport in French Guiana, where final preparations are underway for its April launch. The transport materialized on February 8 with an Antonov Airlines An-124 special cargo flight from Toulouse. Now, the spacecraft will undergo final tests and inspections by ESA and Airbus engineers before being fueled and mounted on its Ariane 5 rocket.
The journey will be long and will last 8 years, with arrival on Jupiter expected in 2031. At least 35 flybys of the moons are expected and the mission will conclude with an in-depth study of Ganymede.
With JUICE, ESA intends to solve five mysteries in particular, which we summarize below.
- Better understand the geology of Callisto, Europa and Ganymede and the composition of the underground oceans, potentially capable of hosting life.
- Understand why Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system to have its own magnetic field (there are auroras like what happens on Earth).
- Understand if on one of the Jovian moons there has ever been life, even if only in simple unicellular forms.
- Find out how Jupiter has shaped the current geological condition of its moons and orbital trajectories.
- Finally answer the question of questions. How did this gaseous giant form, with what modalities and timing did it configure itself as a mini-Jovian system comparable in some way to the solar one?
[ad_2]
Source link
