ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), is on an epic eight-year journey to Jupiter. This primary episode of ‘The journey of Juice’ tells the story of Juice’s first months in house, from its launch on 14 April 2023 to its lunar-Earth gravity help (LEGA for brief) in August 2024. This flyby was not solely the primary double gravity help manoeuvre of its variety, it was additionally an ideal alternative to check out the spacecraft’s cameras and science devices.
On this episode, Juice’s Mission Supervisor Nicolas Altobelli explains how the spacecraft will turn into the primary ever human-made machine to orbit a moon of one other planet, on this case Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede.
You’ll additionally hear from Claire Vallat and Marc Costa on the European Area Astronomy Centre (ESAC) close to Madrid, Spain. Juice will carry out extremely advanced measurements as soon as it reaches Jupiter, and the Science Operations workforce at ESAC is ensuring we get probably the most out of each instrument.
In the meantime, the Flight Management workforce on the European Area Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, makes positive Juice is and stays on the suitable path. This episode reveals what occurred ‘behind the scenes’ earlier than and in the course of the lunar-Earth flyby, and stars Ignacio Tanco, Angela Dietz and members of the Juice Flight Management workforce as they do what they do finest.
Lastly, we spotlight the ESA monitoring station community (Estrack), one other essential part for Juice. Upkeep and Operations Engineer Belén Goméz provides a tour of the power at Cebreros.
Following the very profitable lunar-Earth flyby, Juice is now on its approach to planet Venus for its subsequent flyby. On 31 August 2025, this flyby will give Juice its second gravity enhance. Tune again in subsequent yr for episode two of this sequence!
This sequence follows on from ‘The making of Juice’ sequence, which coated the planning, testing and launch of this once-in-a-generation mission.
