A little while ago, ESA’s JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) space probe was launched atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from the Kourou base in French Guiana. After about 27 minutes, it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and began the long journey that will take it to Jupiter orbit, where it will conduct its scientific mission, focused on the largest planet in the solar system’s so-called icy moons: Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto.
The JUICE mission was developed after the failure of a collaboration attempt between ESA and NASA proposed in 2008. In 2012, the JUICE project was selected to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. While this mission is run by ESA, some hardware and instruments were provided by NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.
For some decades, Europa has been one of the moons that attracted the greatest interest in the solar system due to the presence of an underground ocean of liquid water. Also due to the detection of geysers originating from fractures in the ice surface, there’s evidence of activity under that ice that can be attributed to hydrothermal sources. These are sources similar to those on Earth where it’s possible that the first life forms may have developed. This led to much speculation about the possibility of life forms in Europa’s ocean. However, there are clues that Ganymede and Callisto may also host subterranean oceans, making the JUICE mission all the more intriguing.
The assessment of the effective habitability potential of the subsurface of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto is the main goal of the JUICE mission. To achieve this, the space probe is equipped with 10 very sophisticated instruments which, in addition to taking photos of the surface of the three moons, will obtain detections in various electromagnetic bands and of plasma, also with an altimeter and a radar.
If all goes well in the course of its long journey, the JUICE space probe will reach Jupiter’s orbit in July 2031. For three and a half years, it will study its icy moons, especially with a series of flybys for each of them. In late 2035, JUICE is scheduled to run out of propellant at which point it will crash-land on Ganymede. ESA is still expected to collaborate with NASA, which has developed its own Europa Clipper mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024 with the aim of studying Europa. These missions will bring valuable new information about these moons in the hope of understanding if their oceans can really host life forms.
