Nicely-placed observers have a uncommon alternative to see an interplanetary spacecraft early subsequent week.
If skies are clear, devoted observers and imagers have a shot early subsequent week at seeing a spacecraft headed to Jupiter.
The Mission is JUICE, the European House Company’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. Launched atop an Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou House Heart in French Guiana on April 14th, 2023, JUICE is because of arrive at Jupiter in 2031. However first, the spacecraft will carry out a number of planetary flybys to choose up velocity, hurdling it in the direction of the outer photo voltaic system.
Firsts for ESA
JUICE marks a number of firsts for house exploration and ESA. JUICE is the primary non-NASA solo mission to the outer photo voltaic system, in addition to the primary ESA mission to Jupiter. The mission additionally follows within the footsteps of NASA’s Juno mission, using monumental photo voltaic panels as an alternative of a nuclear-powered MMRTG for energy.
In one other first, JUICE will carry out the first-ever twin Earth-Moon flyby for this upcoming enhance. This can be a difficult ‘thread the needle,’ form of maneuver, because the Moon flyby units up the spacecraft for the Earth flyby. The maneuver is termed a ‘LEGA,’ or Lunar-Earth Gravitational Help. JUICE fired its engines for 43 minutes final yr to set it up for this month’s Earth-Moon flyby. A sequence of four smaller course correction burns had been lately carried out, beginning with a 31-second maneuver on July 22nd.
The massive take a look at for the spacecraft will are available 2031, when JUICE fires up its major engines for orbital insertion round Jupiter. The trick throughout any engine burn for the spacecraft is to not induce any undesirable wobbles within the monumental cruciform-shaped photo voltaic panels.
The double flyby is the fortuitous results of the launch window again in 2023. The primary Moon flyby provides engineers an opportunity to tweak the Earth move shortly earlier than closest method if wanted. The overall delta-V most for the spacecraft is 2,700 meters per second or 6,000 miles per hour.
JUICE was even briefly mistaken for an incoming Potentially Hazardous Asteroid early this month. The spacecraft poses no hazard to the Earth-Moon system.
Previewing the Flyby
Listed here are the specifics for the encounter:
The closest Moon method happens on Monday, August 19th at 21:16 Common Time (UT), 700 kilometers from the lunar floor.
Closest Earth method happens about 24 hours afterward Tuesday, August 20th at 21:57 UT. At its closest, JUICE will move 6,807 kilometers from the floor of Earth over northeastern Asia and the Pacific. This encounter occurs within the daytime. Australia and southeast Asia have the very best shot at seeing JUICE inbound simply earlier than closest method within the pre-dawn sky.
For Europe and North America, the circumstances are much less favorable. These locales will see the spacecraft farther out when it’s highest within the sky. For instance, Paris will see the spacecraft at round 23:20 UT at a spread of 220,000 miles/354,000 kilometers out. Boston will see JUICE at a spread of 150,000 miles/241,000 kilometers away round 6:20 UT within the predawn sky.
The JUICE mission from @esa returns to Earth this month for a gravitational help from each the Moon & Earth. It’s vacation spot is Jupiter, the place it’ll examine its moons and even orbit Ganymede earlier than crashing into it. @ESA_JUICE pic.twitter.com/5C3OUkkJ0J
— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) August 4, 2024
The southeastern U.S. will get one other shot round 1:00 UT on August 21st (9:00 PM Jap Daylight Time August 20th). This low to the horizon alternative happens at nightfall, because the spacecraft is then about 30,000 miles distant.
ESA’s ESOC (European House Operations Centre) and the worldwide Estrack community will monitor JUICE all through the flyby. This will even give mission controllers an opportunity to check key devices, which will probably be switched on through the move. Of particular concern is the RIME (Radar for Icy Moons Exploration) instrument. RIME appears to be getting interference from different spacecraft devices. Controllers will function it in each solo and tandem mode together with different onboard devices through the lunar flyby, in an effort to troubleshoot RIME. RIME is essential to probing the inside of Jupiter’s icy moons.
Recognizing JUICE
The important thing to recognizing JUICE is understanding simply the place and when to look. JUICE is 27 meters throughout from the tip of 1 photo voltaic panel to a different, and can move Earth inside vary of the ring of geostationary satellites. A superb specular glint of the Solar off of one of many giant photo voltaic panels might briefly elevate JUICE in vary of bare eye brightness.
Getting a exact place on JUICE is difficult, as most planetarium packages received’t embrace the deflection of the spacecraft because of the gravity of the Earth and the Moon. Producing ephemerides with JPL Horizons is your greatest guess, because it’ll offer you a exact place within the sky in Proper Ascension (RA) and Declination to level and conduct a search. Merely watch on the appointed time, and try to ‘ambush’ JUICE because it glides previous. Very like a satellite tv for pc, JUICE will seem like a shifting ‘star’ drifting throughout the sector of fastened background stars.
JUICE is spacecraft ID -28 within the JPL Horizons System.
Astronomer Gianluca Masi caught sight of JUICE throughout a Digital Telescope session on August 9th:
Heavens-Above might submit monitoring maps for JUICE. They’ve performed so up to now… we’ll observe these right here this weekend in the event that they flip up.
Subsequent up, JUICE will flyby Venus subsequent August. It is going to then make two extra Earth flybys, one in 2026 and a remaining one in 2029.
Good luck and clear skies, in your quest to nab JUICE on this historic Earth-Moon flyby.
