AIRBUS-BUILT JUICE BEGINS ITS EPIC ODYSSEY

JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) recently spread its wings following the Ariane 5 successful lift-off. The ESA spacecraft operations team at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, took control of the spacecraft and confirmed the reception of the first telemetry and the smooth deployment of the solar arrays.

Additional equipment and instruments will be progressively turned on in the next few days and the operations team will run tests to ensure they are all fully operational.

On its over 5 billion kilometres long journey, the 6.2 tonne JUICE spacecraft will make a series of flybys of Callisto, Ganymede and Europa, collecting data to try to understand whether there is any possibility that the moons and their subsurface oceans could host microbial life. Carrying 10 state-of-the-art scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, a radio-science experiment, a particle package and various magnetic and electric field sensors, the JUICE spacecraft will complete a unique 4-year tour of the Jupiter system.

JUICE will arrive at Jupiter in 2031 after a series of gravity slingshots from Venus and Earth to propel it on its way.