Europe’s mission to explore three icy moons of Jupiter is all set to begin its voyage to the outer Solar System. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, also known as JUICE, will study Europa, Ganymede and Callisto to provide insights into their nature, evolution, possible subsurface oceans and the potential to harbour life. JUICE has been undergoing final testing at Airbus facilities in Toulouse, France, and will shortly begin its journey to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on South America’s Atlantic coast. From there, the 6,200 -kilogram spacecraft will launch on one of the last two Ariane 5 rockets. “The launch is currently targeted for 14 April,” ESA director general Josef Aschbacher said.
JUICE is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2031 and will then make a series of flybys of the icy Galilean moons. It will finally enter orbit around Ganymede in 2034 to begin a more detailed nine-month-long study of the moon, which will also be the first time a spacecraft orbits a moon other than our own. JUICE will use its ten cuttingedge science payloads to further our understanding of the moons. One major focus will be the internal subsurface oceans underneath the moons’ crusts, which JUICE will target by studying the moons’ magnetic fields and looking at their tidal interactions with other worlds in the Jupiter system. “We are not monitoring fish or big fish or creatures in these lakes, but we are seeing how these moons are composed and whether they could be habitable or not,” Aschbacher said.