Juice: Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer-An Ambitious Space Mission of ESA

Mission Juice: An Ambitious Space Mission of the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency also known as ESA, launched the Juice spacecraft in April 2023. What is the purpose of this mission? Its focus would be to study not only Jupiter but also its three largest icy moons Europa, Ganymede & Callisto. It is believed or suspected that these icy moons host large oceans of water beneath their surface or icy crusts. Juice will be used to verify this fact.

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You may be wondering what's the point of tracing water on these moons. Well, the presence of water is the first and foremost condition for life to prosper. It will be surely a big deal if juice can confirm the presence of water beneath the icy crusts of these moons.

Be it Voyager 1 or 2, Cassini or Galileo, we have had the privilege of closely looking at the giant planet's largest moon. Initially, we believed these were inactive, but now our point of view has changed to a great degree. It is believed that these distant moons have a rich history like some other planets. So surely there is a need to study such moons.

What is the JUICE Mission by ESA? Why is the JUICE Mission Important?

We were more engaged and engrossed with Mars because of its similarities with Earth and its past since it had a terrestrial atmosphere. Mars is still at the top of our agenda, but we have understood the need to look beyond Mars. We have found some icy moons and scientists are trying to explore more on this front, expanding the scope of exploration further.

If you study Earth then you will see that out here life thrives in the deepest corner of water bodies like oceans. This is a clue that is encouraging enough to study the three largest icy moons of Jupiter. Just like Earth, can we find life on the ocean floors of these three icy moons? This is an exciting and intriguing question worth answering. Therefore, ESA plans to study these three largest icy moons of Jupiter and see what the possibilities are in this regard. Juice could give us a hint or two about the places we must venture into in our quest to find the presence of life in the universe.

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Juice will use a visible and infrared spectrometer in order to identify what the surfaces of icy moons are made up of. This is very significant in the context of knowing more about these icy bodies. It will also engage itself with the task of identifying & mapping minerals across Ganymede's surface. It will also have the responsibility of understanding the formation of some of Europa's & Callisto's complex life forms alongside tracing organic building block molecules of life which is considered the most important sign of potential source of life or habitability.

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It is important to highlight here that JUICE or the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, will make multiple flybys past Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa before going into orbit around Ganymede. This mission will come in handy in knowing more about Jupiter & its systems. Of course one of its key areas of operation would be to ascertain whether Ganymede is capable of supporting life.

What Will Happen After JUICE Successfully Launched?

After two weeks of its launching, juice will station all its antennas & instrument booms. Over the span of the next three months post deployment of all antennas and instruments, there is a plan to commission all scientific instruments of the spacecraft.

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Once it is successfully launched it will take some time for its first flyby which is likely to take place in August 2024. What it plans to do is it will fly by the Moon followed by an Earth flyby about one and a half days later. The idea is to take advantage of the Earth-Moon gravitational field which will help it to put itself on a course to the Jupiter system.

Conclusion

Mankind is leaving no stone unturned to identify and establish the presence of life on another planet. Initially it launched one or two successful missions to space and now there is a race to find the presence of life in the universe. All the major Space Agencies are doing their bit and contributing. Nobody wants to miss out on this. Early on it was NASA & ROSCOSMOS who were competing hard to establish their supremacy, of late though other space agencies are also making their presence felt.

Mankind intends to study distant exoplanets and icy moons. The thrust is no longer on just studying and sending probes to nearby planets alone. New highly advanced space missions are in the pipeline. Whether the breakthrough will be achieved in confirming life on other celestial bodies cannot be said with certainty as of now. Yes, the fact that we are launching so many space missions will provide us with a pool of information about the universe which can translate to a lot of benefits for mankind in the distant future.

Coming back to the juice mission, we must acknowledge all the hard work that has gone into it. Our scientists, technical staff, and all those people who have remained associated with this mission deserve all the kudos. They seem very optimistic about this mission. Studying these icy moons will surely shed more light on such bodies. So let's keep a close watch on the juice mission and see what it reveals.

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