Editorial Science (EFE).- The European mission Juice undertook this Friday an eight-year journey to Jupiter and its three large oceanic moons, after taking off on an Ariane 5 rocket at 12:14 GMT from the Kurú spaceport in French Guiana.
The launch, which had to be aborted yesterday due to the risk of lightning strikes, completed each stage perfectly and the probe separated from the rocket almost 28 minutes after takeoff, thus beginning its “new and independent life” in the space.
“Separation confirmed”, was heard in one of the control rooms and the first applause and hugs arrived to celebrate years of work on a mission that will scrutinize the gas giant Jupiter and its satellites Callisto, Europa and Ganymede to study if they meet the conditions of habitability.
first signal from space
The next committed moment was the reception of the first signal from Juice, which occurred 50 minutes after liftoff.
“The ship has emitted the first signal from its new home, space, and has been captured by the ESA ground station in New Norcia, Western Australia,” the space agency summarized in one of its Twitter accounts. And once again the applause was heard in the control rooms of this mission, including the ESA European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt (Germany).
Deployment of the ship’s ten solar arrays was the next critical stage. Juice got it just over an hour and fifteen minutes after takeoff, and they’re already using their own power.
“Europe has a mission. We flew to Jupiter”, summed up Andrea Accomazzo, ESA director of operations during the launch broadcast.
Ten state-of-the-art instruments
Equipped with ten state-of-the-art instruments, it will arrive there in July 2031, in an incredible and technically complicated journey, since it will have to achieve the necessary momentum and save maximum fuel. To do this, it will take advantage of the help of the gravity of the Earth, the Moon and Venus.
For that, 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 spacecraft, about six tons, will face its scientific mission in a particularly hostile environment, with high radiation, extremely low temperatures, strong magnetic fields and little light.
Juice will delve deeper into Jupiter’s complex environment and explore its large oceanic moons, Europa, Callisto, and especially Ganymede.
The probe will observe these three satellites, under whose icy crusts there should be large oceans of water, even larger than on Earth, and will study what these worlds are like, how they influence Jupiter’s environment and vice versa, and whether they present habitable conditions.
Ganymede, special target
Juice’s main target will be Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system and the only one with an internal magnetic field. This, together with its complex core, the ice content and its possible hidden ocean are some of the scientific purposes.
But he will also focus on the mysterious Jupiter, which with its moons creates a miniature solar system, and from which he will study what a typical gaseous planet is like, how it was formed and how it works, in addition to its atmosphere, the enormous magnetic field, its dust rings and smaller satellites.
The mission is expected to last about four years, during which the probe will orbit Jupiter and make 35 approach flights to its icy moons.
On his two approach flights to Europe, Juice will search for biomarkers and pockets of water, as well as explore its geology; while in the 21 that he will do on Callisto he intends to glimpse the environment of primitive Jupiter.
Ganymede will be the first moon other than our own to be orbited by a space probe; It will do so from December 2034 to September 2035, and when Juice runs out of fuel it will crash into it in a controlled manner.
International collaboration to reach Jupiter
The Juice mission, with a cost of 1,600 million euros, has had the collaboration of 23 countries, including Spain, which contributes with ten scientists.
In addition, two of the instruments have Spanish participation -in the Gala laser altimeter and the Janus camera- and seven companies have contributed with various parts of the probe, such as the structure and thermal control or the optimization of the navigation system.
It also has the collaboration of NASA, which has provided one of the instruments (UVS) and the “hardware” for others, and the Japanese space agency JAXA, also with the “hardware” of various instruments.
A soundtrack for Juice
Like every space mission, this one also has some curiosities. One of them, the Ariane 5 on which Juice traveled, wore a drawing representing the mission on its cap and 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.
Another curiosity, a soundtrack on Spotify updated today with 64 songs, including one by the Spanish group Amaral (“El universo sobre mí”).
In their titles, all the themes mention in one way or another some term indirectly related to the mission or the universe. The words juice, cold or icy appear (the moons of Jupiter Europa, Callisto and Ganymede are known as icy or oceanic), explorer, magnetic field, cosmos or planets.