The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is set to conduct in-depth studies of Jupiter and its ocean-bearing moons—Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa—using an array of advanced scientific instruments. After launching six weeks ago, the mission control team in Germany successfully deployed all necessary equipment, including solar panels and antennas, ensuring the spacecraft is primed for scientific exploration. Juice, featuring the most comprehensive instrument suite ever sent to the outer Solar System, will investigate the moons as potential habitats for past or present life and explore Jupiter’s complex environment.
Among the ten instruments, the Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation (RPWI) will create a 3D map of electric fields around Jupiter, while the JANUS camera has already captured its first images to analyze the moons and the wider Jovian system. Juice experienced some challenges, such as a stalled antenna deployment, but initiative and teamwork successfully resolved these issues.
Juice will embark on an eight-year voyage, performing flybys of Earth and Venus before arriving at Jupiter in July 2031, where it will carry out numerous observations and analyses over many months, enhancing our understanding of gas giant systems.
