A SPACECRAFT heads for Jupiter today to find whether the planet’s icy moons can support life.
The six-tonne probe, called Juice, is set to launch at 12.14pm UK time this afternoon in what will be the European Space Agency’s biggest deep-space venture yet.
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After being held up by lightning on Thursday, the Ariane 5 launch will now take place from Kourou (French Guiana), the European spaceport.
Justin Byrne said that after more than ten years of developing the pioneering spacecraft for Airbus as well as being its lead contractor: “We’re going to all cross our fingers and hope that things will go smoothly so that we can finally launch this amazing mission.”
A precise window of one second is available to launch the aircraft due to its complex trajectory.
About 30 minutes after liftoff, Juice separates from the rocket. After that, it will begin a journey lasting more than 8 years and covering 4.1 billion miles.
It will carry 10 scientific instruments to study three of the planet’s four main moons: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto in close flybys.
In December 2034 it will attempt to change paths to orbit Ganymede – making it the first spacecraft in history to orbit a moon other than the Earth’s own.
Caroline Harper, the head of the UK Space Agency’s space science department, stated: “The launch Juice represents years of collaboration and hard work by scientists, engineers, and space agencies around the globe, but the journey has not yet ended.”
We look forward to watching the spacecraft on its journey to Jupiter, and later as it uses UK-developed instruments to study the planets and their moons.
We have an extensive community of UK research experts who eagerly await Juice’s data.
With this information, we hope to learn more about gas giants and their icy satellites. This will bring us closer to the understanding of evolution in the universe.