the Juice probe ready to leave Toulouse for Jupiter
The Juice space probe is due to leave Airbus in early February for Kourou in Guyana. On April 5, 2023, it will lift off for the icy moons of Jupiter in search of microbial life.
It’s only a matter of days. At the beginning of February, the Juice space probe will soon leave Toulouse for Guyana. On April 5, it will take off for a 4-year mission around three moons of Jupiter.
The interplanetary probe JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission) will travel 2 billion kilometers to collect data on three of Jupiter’s icy moons. The challenge ? Trying to understand if these moons bring together the conditions conducive to microbial life.
JUICE is to perform an unprecedented study of the Jovian system and an in-depth analysis of these three potentially oceanic moons. For this, the probe is equipped with state-of-the-art scientific instruments such as spectrometer cameras, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, etc.
She will spend nine months in orbit around the moon Ganymede to analyze its composition and evolution, characterize its ocean under the icy ice and study its potential habitability.
The European Space Agency has chosen Airbus to design and build a spacecraft. Since August 2021, Airbus has been taking care of its final assembly and testing. Juice is equipped with the largest solar panels ever integrated on Earth for a planetary exploration mission, they will allow the probe to be powered when it is 740 million kilometers from the Sun.
Before his big departure, a commemorative plaque honoring Galileo was attached to the spacecraft. The Italian astronomer was the first to observe Jupiter and its largest moons through a telescope in 1610.