ESA: JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE)

[bystander]

JUICE is Europe’s next large science mission
ESA Space Science | 2012 May 02

[i]The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Credit: ESA/AOES)[/i]

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Jupiter’s icy moons are the focus of Europe’s next large science mission, ESA announced today.

The Jupiter Icy moons Explorer – JUICE – was selected over two other candidates: NGO, the New Gravitational wave Observatory, to hunt for gravitational waves, and ATHENA, the Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics.

JUICE is the first Large-class mission chosen as part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme.

It will be launched in 2022 from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5, arriving at Jupiter in 2030 to spend at least three years making detailed observations.

Jupiter’s diverse Galilean moons – volcanic Io, icy Europa and rock-ice Ganymede and Callisto – make the jovian system a miniature Solar System in its own right.

With Europa, Ganymede and Callisto all thought to host internal oceans, the mission will study the moons as potential habitats for life, addressing two key themes of Cosmic Vision: what are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life, and how does the Solar System work?

JUICE will continuously observe Jupiter’s atmosphere and magnetosphere, and the interaction of the Galilean moons with the gas giant planet.

It will visit Callisto, the most heavily cratered object in the Solar System, and will twice fly by Europa. JUICE will make the first measurements of the thickness of Europa’s icy crust and will identify candidate sites for future in situ exploration.

The spacecraft will finally enter orbit around Ganymede in 2032, where it will study the icy surface and internal structure of the moon, including its subsurface ocean.

Ganymede is the only moon in the Solar System known to generate its own magnetic field, and JUICE will observe the unique magnetic and plasma interactions with Jupiter’s magnetosphere in detail.

“Jupiter is the archetype for the giant planets of the Solar System and for many giant planets being found around other stars,” says Prof. Alvaro Giménez Cañete, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.

“JUICE will give us better insight into how gas giants and their orbiting worlds form, and their potential for hosting life.”

"The selection process has been challenging given the excellent quality of the three mission candidates, and I would like to thank the Space Science Advisory Committee for its hard work and for having carried out this very challenging process in a very rigorous way," says the Chair of ESA’s Science Programme Committee, Dr Richard Bonneville.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of a process started in 2004 when ESA consulted the wider scientific community to set Europe’s goals for space exploration in the coming decade.

The resulting Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme identified four scientific aims. What are the conditions for life and planetary formation? How does the Solar System work? What are the fundamental laws of the Universe? How did the Universe begin and what is it made of?

In 2007, a ’Call for Missions’ was issued around these aims and resulted in a number of L-class missions being considered.

“It was a difficult decision to choose one mission from three excellent candidates. All three would produce world-class science and put Europe at the forefront of space research,” says Prof. Giménez Cañete.

“JUICE is a necessary step for the future exploration of our outer Solar System.”

The high scientific value of both NGO and ATHENA was also recognised by the Science Programme Committee in today’s decision, and technology activities are planned to continue, enabling the missions to be considered as candidates for future launch opportunities. A second Call for Large Missions is expected in 2013.

ESA Turns On The JUICE For New Jupiter Mission
Universe Today | Jason Major | 2012 May 02

Jupiter Picked for Next Major European Space Mission
Science Insider | Edwin Cartlidge | 2012 May 02

Europe Plans Mission to Jupiter's Moons
Discovery News | Irene Klotz | 2012 May 04

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 48#p173948

[neufer]

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ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
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[neufer]

.

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Ted Striker (Airplane!)[/size][/color][/b]

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------------------------------------
ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
------------------------------------

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Europa from Galileo : NASA / JPL / [u]Ted Stryk[/u][/size] Color half-phase global view of Europa. The detail image was taken by Galileo on September 25, 1998. Color is from data taken on other orbits.[/color][/b]

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In Honor of JUICE, a New View of Europa
Posted By Ted Stryk, 2012/05/07

<<On May 2, 2012, the European Space Agency (ESA) approved the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) mission, which will conduct flybys of Jupiter's moons Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa before settling into orbit around Ganymede. The mission is slated to arrive in 2030. It is not known yet whether NASA will choose to participate or (hopefully) send its own mission to conduct a detailed study of Europa. The exciting thing is that even if NASA does drop the ball on outer planets exploration, it appears that ESA will take up the mantle.

To celebrate the selection of ESA's new mission to Jupiter and its icy moons, I have reprocessed another Galileo view of Europa. The dataset I processed was obtained by the Galileo spacecraft on September 25, 1998, during its 17th orbit of Jupiter. I processed it by reducing compressing artifacts and noise and bringing out detail. I removed noise by hand instead of using an automated denoising algorithm. There was a lot of noise in the image, but no automated removal method did a good job of removing it without wreaking havoc on the little ridges. I borrowed color data from other data sets. This image shows areas of Europa not visible in the global views I have processed in the past, though there is some overlap along the terminator (day-night boundary) with other images.>>

[bystander]

ESA chooses instruments for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer
ESA Space Science | JUICE | 2013 Feb 21

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission, JUICE, will carry a total of 11 scientific experiments to study the gas giant planet and its large ocean-bearing moons, ESA announced today.

JUICE is the first Large-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme. Planned for launch in 2022 and arrival at Jupiter in 2030, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the biggest planet in the Solar System and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

These moons are thought to harbour vast water oceans beneath their icy surfaces and JUICE will map their surfaces, sound their interiors and assess their potential for hosting life in their oceans.

Today, ESA’s Science Programme Committee approved a complement of instruments that includes cameras and spectrometers, a laser altimeter and an ice-penetrating radar. The mission will also carry a magnetometer, plasma and particle monitors, and radio science hardware.

The instruments will be developed by scientific teams from 15 European countries, the US and Japan, through corresponding national funding.

“The selection of JUICE’s instruments is a key milestone in ESA’s flagship mission to the outer Solar System, which represents an unprecedented opportunity to showcase leading European technological and scientific expertise,” says Alvaro Giménez Cañete, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.

“The suite of instruments addresses all of the mission’s science goals, from in-situ measurements of Jupiter’s vast magnetic field and plasma environment, to remote observations of the surfaces and interiors of the three icy moons,” adds Luigi Colangeli, coordinator of ESA’s Solar System Missions.

Throughout its mission, JUICE will observe Jupiter’s atmosphere and magnetosphere, and the interaction of all four Galilean satellites – the three icy moons plus Io – with the gas giant planet.

The spacecraft will perform a dozen flybys of Callisto, the most heavily cratered object in the Solar System, and will fly past Europa twice in order to make the first measurements of the thickness of its icy crust.

JUICE will end up in orbit around Ganymede, where it will study the moon’s icy surface and internal structure, including its subsurface ocean.

The largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede is the only one known to generate its own magnetic field, and JUICE will observe the unique magnetic and plasma interactions with Jupiter’s magnetosphere in detail.

“Jupiter and its icy moons constitute a kind of mini-Solar System in their own right, offering European scientists and our international partners the chance to learn more about the formation of potentially habitable worlds around other stars,” says Dmitrij Titov, ESA’s JUICE Study Scientist.

The selection of the instruments today helps to ensure that JUICE remains on schedule for launch in 2022.

List of selected experiments:

• JANUS: Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator, camera system
  MAJIS: Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer
  UVS: UV Imaging Spectrograph
  SWI: Sub-millimetre Wave Instrument
  GALA: Ganymede Laser Altimeter
  RIME: Radar for Icy Moons Exploration
  J-MAG: Magnetometer for JUICE
  PEP: Particle Environment Package
  RPWI: Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation
  3GM: Gravity & Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons
  PRIDE: Planetary Radio Interferometer & Doppler Experiment
  (note this does not include spacecraft hardware but will exploit VLBI – Very Large Base Interferometry – to conduct radio science)

[bystander]

NASA and JPL Contribute to European Jupiter Mission
NASA | JPL-Caltech | 2013 Feb 21

NASA has selected key contributions to a 2022 European Space Agency (ESA) mission that will study Jupiter and three of its largest moons in unprecedented detail. The moons are thought to harbor vast water oceans beneath their icy surfaces.

NASA's contribution will consist of one U.S.-led science instrument and hardware for two European instruments to fly on ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission. JUICE will carry 11 experiments developed by scientific teams from 15 European countries, the United States and Japan.

The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for three years and travel past its moons Callisto and Europa multiple times, then orbit Ganymede, a moon larger than the planet Mercury. JUICE will conduct the first thorough exploration of Jupiter since NASA's Galileo mission from 1989-2003. By studying the Jupiter system, JUICE will look to learn more about the formation and evolution of potentially habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond.
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The NASA contributions are:

• Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS): The principal investigator is Randy Gladstone of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. This spectrometer will acquire images to explore the surfaces and atmospheres of Jupiter's icy moons and how they interact with the Jupiter environment. The instrument also will determine how Jupiter's upper atmosphere interacts with its lower atmosphere below, and the ionosphere and magnetosphere above. The instrument will provide images of the aurora on Jupiter and Ganymede.
• Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME): The principal investigator is Lorenzo Bruzzone of Universita degli Studi di Trento in Italy. The U.S. lead is Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. Under the lead of Bruzzone and the Italian Space Agency, JPL will provide the transmitter and receiver hardware for a radar sounder designed to penetrate the icy crust of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto to a depth of about 5 miles (9 kilometers). This will allow scientists to see for the first time the underground structure of these tectonically complex and unique icy worlds.
• Particle Environment Package (PEP): The principal investigator is Stas Barabash of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The U.S. lead is Pontus Brandt of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. Under the lead of Barabash and the Swedish National Space Board, APL will provide instruments to this suite to measure the neutral material and plasma that are accelerated and heated to extreme levels in Jupiter's fierce and complex magnetic environment.

[bystander]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Instruments for the JUICE Jovian Mission
Planetary Society | Van Kane | 2013 Mar 07

[Beyond]

Landing on Europa in 2037 Uh-oh... get ready for the unleashing of the Monoliths!! It could get quite

[MargaritaMc]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Instruments for the JUICE Jovian Mission
Planetary Society | Van Kane | 2013 Mar 07

I get the impression, from reading the written texts and links posted here, and the blurb at YouTube

This was a proposed mission to Europa by NASA, as interprated by James Cameron.

that the video shows a proposed mission - not, sadly, one that is part of JUICE. Or have I misunderstood?

Margarita

[bystander]

I get the impression, from reading the written texts and links posted here, and the blurb at YouTube

This was a proposed mission to Europa by NASA, as interprated by James Cameron.

that the video shows a proposed mission - not, sadly, one that is part of JUICE. Or have I misunderstood?

Unfortunately, you are correct. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter was cut by NASA in 2005. Another joint mission between ESA and NASA, along with JAXA and Roscosmos, the Europa Jupiter System Mission was also cut in 2011. JUICE is the latest attempt to send a mission to Jupiter's moons.

[bystander]

Ultraviolet Instrument Delivered for ESA's Jupiter Mission
Southwest Research Institute | JUICE-UVS | 2020 Feb 25

SwRI’s Norm Pelletier prepares the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) for delivery and integration onto the European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft. As part of a 10-instrument payload to study Jupiter and its large moons, UVS will measure ultraviolet spectra that scientists will use to study the composition and structure of the atmospheres of these bodies and how they interact with Jupiter’s massive magnetosphere. Credit: SwRI

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An ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS) designed and built by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is the first scientific instrument to be delivered for integration onto the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft. Scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030, JUICE will spend at least three years making detailed observations in the Jovian system before going into orbit around the solar system’s largest moon, Ganymede.

Aboard JUICE, UVS will get close-up views of the Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all thought to host liquid water beneath their icy surfaces. UVS will record ultraviolet light emitted, transmitted and reflected by these bodies, revealing the composition of their surfaces and tenuous atmospheres and how they interact with Jupiter and its giant magnetosphere. ...

UVS will be one of 10 science instruments and 11 investigations for the JUICE mission. The mission has overarching goals of investigating potentially habitable worlds around the gas giant, as well as, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants in our solar system and beyond. ...

[Ann]

How I wish there was an ultraviolet instrument that would look at galaxies and not just at the Sun and the Solar system!

GALEX, come back!

Ann

[bystander]

Space Technology Ready to Explore Oceans
Under the Ice on Jupiter's Moon Ganymede
Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) | 2020 Aug 21

The Swedish-led instrument package Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation, RPWI, includes four langmuir probes on three-meter-long booms for the space mission JUICE (Jupiter ICy moons Explorer). Photo: IRF

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Now the first of two Swedish-led Jupiter instruments has left the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) to take its place on the European spacecraft JUICE. The Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation instrument (RPWI) will measure electric and magnetic fields to identify and map the oceans beneath the frozen ice cover of the moon Ganymede. ...

“The instrument is designed to investigate, in particular, how Jupiter's magnetosphere interacts with the atmospheres of the icy moons. We primarily hope to identify and map how Ganymede's ocean flows under the ice sheet and what processes keep it going. With RPWI, we will not be able to detect any life in the oceans, but where there is liquid water, there are opportunities for life,” says Jan-Erik Wahlund.

RPWI will contribute to the mapping of Jupiter's and Ganymede's entire magnetospheres. The scientists hope to get more information about how the moons work in detail, but also to study, for example, radio radiation emitted from Jupiter's surroundings. ...

[bystander]

JPL Delivers Radar Hardware for Jupiter Mission
NASA | JPL-Caltech | JUICE | RIME | 2020 Sep 21

Despite COVID-19-related hurdles, crucial NASA instrument components for the European-led JUICE spacecraft have been delivered.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and shipped the receiver, transmitter, and electronics necessary to complete the radar instrument for JUICE, the ESA (European Space Agency) mission to explore Jupiter and its three large icy moons. Here the transmitter undergoes vibration testing at JPL. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory met a significant milestone recently by delivering key elements of an ice-penetrating radar instrument for an ESA (European Space Agency) mission to explore Jupiter and its three large icy moons. ...

Set to launch in 2022, JUICE will orbit Jupiter for three years, perform multiple flybys of moons Callisto and Europa, then orbit Ganymede. The spacecraft will observe Jupiter's atmosphere up close as well as analyze the surfaces and interiors of the three moons, which are believed to harbor liquid water under their icy crusts.

One of 10 instruments, the radar is key to exploring those moons. Called Radar for Icy Moon Exploration, or RIME, it sends out radio waves that can penetrate the surface up to 6 or 7 miles (10 kilometers) and collects data on how the waves bounce back. Some of the waves penetrate the crust and reflect off subsurface features - and the watery interiors - enabling scientists to "see" underneath.

In the case of Europa, which is believed to have a global ocean beneath its crust, the radar data will help gauge the thickness of the ice. NASA's Europa Clipper mission, set to launch in the mid-2020s, will arrive around the same time as JUICE and collect complementary science as it performs multiple flybys of Europa. ...