The European Space Agency (ESA) is all set to launch the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, mission from its spaceport in French Guiana on an Ariane 5 launcher.
Key Points On Juice Mission
- It is planned to reach Jupiter in 2031
- The mission aims to carry out a detailed exploration of the Solar System’s largest planet and its icy moons, which potentially have habitable environments.
- Juice has been constructed by an industrial consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space based on the parameters provided by the ESA.
Mission Objectives Of Juice Mission
- To make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large ocean-bearing moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa”, by using remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments.
- Although the mission will examine all three moons, the main focus will be on Ganymede, as it is the largest moon in the Solar System — larger than Pluto and Mercury — and the only one to generate its own magnetic field.
- To create a comprehensive picture of Jupiter by trying to understand its origin, history and evolution.
- To analyse the chemistry, structure, dynamics, weather, and climate of Jupiter and its ever-changing atmosphere.
Significance Of Juice Mission
- Scientists for quite some time have known that these three moons of Jupiter possess icy crusts, which they believe contain oceans of liquid water underneath, making them potentially habitable.
- Juice will help probe these water bodies by creating detailed maps of the moons’ surfaces and enable the scientists, for the first time, to look beneath them.
- Scientists believe that this would help them provide much-needed insight into how such a planetary system and its constituents are formed and evolved over time
Life On Jupiter
Jupiter Missions
- Only two other spacecraft have ever examined Jupiter:
- The Galileo probe, which orbited the gas giant between 1995 and 2003
- Juno, which has been circling the planet since 2016.
- By the time Juice reaches Jupiter, another spacecraft, NASA’s Europa Clipper, would already be orbiting the planet — scheduled to be launched in October this year, Europa Clipper would arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and aims to study its Europa moon
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