Summary
- Juice successfully completed a Moon-Earth flyby and flew to Jupiter via Venus using a gravity assist.
- The spacecraft collected data and photographs during its flight, while also receiving power boosts from Earth and Venus.
- The European spacecraft “Juice” will explore and study Jupiter's moons in 2031, searching for extraterrestrial life.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) has successfully completed the world's first Moon-Earth flyby, taking a “shortcut” to Venus on its way to Jupiter. It has been more than a year since Juice traveled through the solar system for eight years to study Jupiter's moons in the hope of finding life. Juice will be working with NASA's Europa Clipper scheduled to launch in October 2024It will also explore Jupiter's moons, looking for space Beyond Earth.
Juice flies over the moon and the earth
this European Space Agency (ESA) stated:The European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) has successfully completed the world's first Moon-Earth flyby, using Earth's gravity to send it to Venus, taking a shortcut through the inner solar system to reach Jupiter.“”.
Image: ESA
The space agency also said the spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon will be on August 19 at 21:15 UTC; this puts Juice at its closest approach to Earth 24 hours later, on August 20 at 21:56 UTC.”As Juice flew 6,840 kilometers over Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, it captured a series of images with its onboard surveillance cameras and collected scientific data with eight of its ten instruments.” ESA said in a statement.
Launched more than a year ago on April 14, 2023, Juice is expected to reach Venus in August 2025. It will then make a second flyby of the planet in September 2026 and a third and final flyby in January 2029. These gravity assists will give it the energy it needs to reach Jupiter. ESA explains, “From that moment on [the 2025 Venus flyby] To start, the energy boost will begin, with the juice being carried away by Venus and then twice by Earth – the equivalent of drinking three shots of espresso in a row“”.
Juice is expected to reach Jupiter in July 2031 after a total of eight years and four gravity assists. It will enter orbit around Ganymede in December 2034.
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Juice is an interplanetary spacecraft, the first spacecraft to explore an extrasolar planet not launched by the United States. It was developed and built by the European Space Agency and launched from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, South America. Airbus Defence and Space is Juice's main contractor.
“ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, JUICE, will provide detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large ocean moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – using a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The mission will characterize these moons as planetary objects and possible habitats, provide in-depth insights into Jupiter's complex environment, and study the wider Jupiter system as a prototype for gas giants throughout the Universe.” – ESA
Image: Airbus
Juice is currently in orbit to study Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, three of Jupiter's icy moons, which are believed to have bodies of liquid water beneath their frozen surfaces and could be habitable for alien life.
