2023-04-19 07:42:01
The European probe took off on April 14, bound for Jupiter and its icy moons. As she moves away from our Planet, Juice’s schedule remains quite busy over the next few weeks. Shortly following taking off, Juice reveals his very first images of Earth.
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[EN VIDÉO] Juice, a great mission to unlock the secrets of Jupiter’s moons The European probe Juice takes off for Jupiter and its mysterious moons on April 14, 2023….
As a reminder, Juice is going to characterize the habitability of several Galilean moons and study the Jovian system as a whole. It is a historic mission which must meet new scientific objectives. After the stress of takeoff, a new phase of the flight started, much longer.
The role of surveillance cameras
It remains quite usual for an interplanetary probe to send the first images very early. It is above all a sign of good health, and it is crucial for the mission to ensure that the probe functions as agreed following the turbulence of takeoff. Visual confirmation can sometimes be more reassuring than what the probe’s telemetry says. The two JCM cameras return square images of 1,024 pixels per side. Juice also has a science camera that takes high-resolution images, which will be activated over the next few weeks.
Juice is equipped with two surveillance cameras. The first, JCM1, is installed at the front of the probe and observes diagonally in order to have a view of an antenna section and solar panels, the total surface of which reaches 85 m²! The second camera (JCM2) is installed on top to keep an eye on the complex deployment of the 16 meter long radar antenna (Rime). The reason is that Rime is Juice’s flagship instrument, for its ability to view through the ice of moons.
What’s next in the program?
After the automatic deployment of the solar panels, teams from the ESA operations center (Esoc) took control of the probe. The teams from the ESA operations center will then check all the subsystems to see if their operation remains nominal following launch. Indeed, if their resistance has been tested in a clean room, some materials can be damaged by the vibrations of the rocket during the flight.
The sequence of operations has multiple deployments. « Juice is a rather complicated appendage satellite. » explained Olivier Witasse, scientific manager of Juice at ESA, answering questions from Futura. It started with the medium-gain antenna, which will be used to communicate with Earth during interplanetary travel. Fifteen days are also devoted to the deployment of the radar antenna, then to that of the arm of the magnetometer (10 meters long), and finally three arms of 3 meters at the end of which are Langmuir probes to measure the electric field and characterize ambient plasma.
Following this deployment phase, the “commissioning” phase begins, which will last until the end of June according to Olivier Witasse. During this phase, all subsystems will be tested, including scientific instruments. ” There are ten instruments on board, so it takes timesays Olivier Witasse. You have to turn them on one following the other, check that they work well, test a few observation modes. If we have time, we will take an image of the Earth with the camera [scientifique] “. It is at the end of this phase that we can say that Juice has ” survived launch ».
A more than perfect takeoff
Once once more, as for the James-Webb space telescope, Ariane 5 made Bull’s Eye, in other words in French “in the mile”! The details reported in a tweet from Stéphane Israel, CEO of Arianespace, show that no corrective action will be necessary. The saved fuel can then be used later during the mission, in particular for a possible extension.
After 8 years of interplanetary travel and 35 flybys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, Juice will place itself in orbit around Ganymede in 2034 and will remain there until September 2035. The end of the mission consists of a crash on the surface. But if enough fuel remains, and the probe’s health permits, the mission will then be extended and may bring its orbit closer to 200 kilometers above the surface.
Takeoff seen from all angles, including the launch pad’s engineering cameras! © CSG Optical Center
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