Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer

For the similarly named spacecraft, see Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter.

Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer

An artistic montage for the JUICE mission
Operator	ESA
Major contractors	Airbus Defence and Space
Mission type	Orbiter—Planetary science
Launch date	2022
Carrier rocket	Ariane 5
Launch site	Guiana Space Centre
Mission duration	7.6 years cruise; 3.5 years in the Jovian system.
Flyby of	Ganymede, Callisto, Europa
Satellite of	Jupiter, Ganymede
Orbital insertion date	2030 (Jupiter) 2033 (Ganymede)
Homepage	JUICE
Power	Solar array of about 100 m2
Instruments
Main instruments	Three spectrometers, ice-penetrating radar, altimeter, magnetometer, gravimeter, cameras
Data rate	1.4 Gb daily downlink

The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) is a planned European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft designed by Airbus Defence and Space to visit the Jovian system, focused on studying three of Jupiter's Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa (excluding the more volcanically active Io). It will characterise these three worlds, all of which are thought to have significant bodies of liquid water beneath their surfaces, making them potentially habitable environments. The selection of this mission for the L1 launch slot of ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme was announced on May 2, 2012.

History

The mission started as a reformulation of the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter proposal, which was to be ESA's component of the cancelled Europa Jupiter System Mission—Laplace (EJSM-Laplace). It became a candidate for the first L-class mission (L1) of the ESA Cosmic Vision Programme, and its selection was announced on May 2, 2012. In April 2012 JUICE was recommended over the proposed ATHENA X-ray telescope and a gravitational wave observatory (New Gravitational wave Observatory (NGO)). In July 2015, Airbus Defence and Space was selected as the Prime Contractor to design and build the probe.

Plan

A proposed timeline is launch in 2022 on an Ariane 5 carrier rocket and arrival at the Jupiter system in 2030. By 2033 the spacecraft should enter orbit around Ganymede, after completing various manoeuvres around Jupiter and the other moons. Proposed instruments include cameras, spectrometers, and an ice-penetrating radar.

Science objectives

Section of Europa's icy surface

The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) would perform detailed investigations on Ganymede as a planetary body and evaluate its potential to support life. Investigations of Europa and Callisto would complete a comparative picture of these Galilean moons. The three moons are thought to harbour internal liquid-water oceans, and so are central to understanding the habitability of icy worlds.

The main science objectives for Ganymede, and to a lesser extent for Callisto, are:

• Characterisation of the ocean layers and detection of putative subsurface water reservoirs;
• Topographical, geological and compositional mapping of the surface;
• Study of the physical properties of the icy crusts;
• Characterisation of the internal mass distribution, dynamics and evolution of the interiors;
• Investigation of Ganymede's tenuous atmosphere;
• Study of Ganymede's intrinsic magnetic field and its interactions with the Jovian magnetosphere.

For Europa, the focus is on the chemistry essential to life, including organic molecules, and on understanding the formation of surface features and the composition of the non-water-ice material. Furthermore, JUICE will provide the first subsurface sounding of the moon, including the first determination of the minimal thickness of the icy crust over the most recently active regions.

Spacecraft

The main spacecraft design drivers are related to the large distance to the Sun, the use of solar power, and Jupiter's harsh radiation environment. The orbit insertions at Jupiter and Ganymede and the large number of flyby manoeuvres (more than 25 gravity assists, and two Europa flybys) requires the spacecraft to carry about 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) of chemical propellant.

Gravity assists include:

• Interplanetary transfer (Earth, Venus, Earth, Earth)
• Jupiter orbit insertion and apocentre reduction with multiple Ganymede gravity assists
• Reduction of velocity with Ganymede–Callisto assists
• Increase inclination with 10–12 Callisto gravity assists

Ganymede Lander

The Russian Space Research Institute is currently evaluating a Ganymede lander mission called Laplace-P, with emphasis in astrobiology. Cooperation and a possible synergy with JUICE Ganymede orbital mission is being discussed between ESA and Roscosmos. Russia has also proposed to power the JUICE spacecraft with a Russian-built radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), replacing solar panels that would be vulnerable to Jupiter's radiation.

Scientific payload

On 21 February 2013, after a competition, 11 instruments were selected by ESA, which will be developed by scientific and engineering teams from all over Europe, with participation from the USA and Japan:

Instrument Name	Abbr.	Description
Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator	JANUS	The JANUS camera system will image Ganymede and important parts of the surface of Callisto better than 400 m/pixel (resolution limited by mission data volume). Selected targets will be investigated in high-resolution with a spatial resolution from 25 m/pixel down to 2.4 m/pixel with a 1.3 degree field of view. The camera system has 13 panchromatic, broad and narrow-band filters in the 0.36 µm to 1.1 µm range, and provides stereo imaging capabilities. JANUS will also allow relating spectral, laser and radar measurements to geomorphology and thus will provide the overall geological context. Principal investigator: P. Palumbo, Parthenope University of Naples, Italy Lead Funding Agency: ASI, Italy
Moons And Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer	MAJIS	MAJIS is a visible and infrared spectrometer operating from 0.4 to 5.7 µm, with spectral resolution of 3–7 nm, that will observe tropospheric cloud features and minor species on Jupiter and will investigate the composition of ices and minerals on the surfaces of icy moons. The spatial resolution will be up to 25 m on Ganymede and about 100 km on Jupiter. Principal investigator: Y. Langevin, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, France Lead Funding Agency: CNES, France
UV imaging Spectrograph	UVS	UVS is an imaging spectrograph operating in the wavelength range 55–210 nm with spectral resolution of < 0.6 nm that will characterise exospheres and aurorae of the icy moons—including plume searches on Europa, study the Jovian upper atmosphere and aurorae. It will reach a resolution of 0.5 km observing Ganymede and up to 250 km observing Jupiter. Principal investigator: R. Gladstone, Southwest Research Institute, USA Lead Funding Agency: NASA, USA
Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument	SWI	SWI is a spectrometer using a 30 cm antenna and working in 1080–1275 GHz and 530–601 GHz with spectral resolving power of ~107 that will study Jupiter's stratosphere and troposphere, and the exospheres and surfaces of the icy moons. Principal investigator: P. Hartogh, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany Lead Funding Agency: DLR, Germany
GAnymede Laser Altimeter	GALA	GALA is a laser altimeter with a 20 m spot size and 0.1 m vertical resolution at 200 km intended for studying topography of icy moons and tidal deformations of Ganymede. Principal investigator: H. Hussmann, DLR, Institute for Planetary Research, Germany Lead Funding Agency: DLR, Germany
Radar for Icy Moons Exploration	RIME	RIME is an ice-penetrating radar working at frequency of 9 MHz (1 and 3 MHz bandwidth) emitted by a 16 m antenna that will be used to study the subsurface structure of Jovian moons down to 9 km (5.6 mi) depth with vertical resolution up to 30 m in ice. Principal investigator: L. Bruzzone, University of Trento, Italy Lead Funding Agency: ASI, Italy
JUICE MAGnetometer	J-MAG	The experiment will study subsurface oceans of the icy moons and the interaction of Jovian magnetic field with the magnetic field of Ganymede using a sensitive magnetometer. Principal investigator: M. Dougherty, Imperial College London, United Kingdom Lead Funding Agency: UKSA, United Kingdom
Particle Environment Package	PEP	PEP will obtain the composition of the visited Jovian moons exospheres measuring density and fluxes of ions and neutral atoms in the energy range from 0.001 eV to 1 MeV. Principal investigator: S. Barabash, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Sweden Lead Funding Agency: SNSB, Sweden
Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation	RPWI	RPWI will characterise the plasma environment and radio emissions around the spacecraft, it is composed of four experiments: GANDALF, MIME, FRODO and JENRAGE. RPWI will use four Langmuir probes, each one mounted at the end of its own dedicated boom, and sensitive up to 1.6 MHz to characterize plasma and receivers in the frequency range 80 kHz – 45 MHz to measure radio emissions. Principal investigator: J.-E. Wahlund, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Sweden Lead Funding Agency: SNSB, Sweden
Gravity & Geophysics of jupiter and Galilean Moons	3GM	3GM instrument, composed of a Ka transponder and an ultrastable oscillator, will measure the gravity field of Ganymede and the extent of internal oceans. It will also study the ionosphere and upper atmosphere of Jupiter and other Jovian moons. Principal investigator: L. Iess, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy Lead Funding Agency: ASI, Italy
Planetary Radio Interferometer & Doppler Experiment	PRIDE	PRIDE experiment will generate specific signals transmitted by JUICE antenna and received by Very Long Baseline Interferometry to perform precision measurements of the gravity fields and of Jupiter and the icy moons . Principal investigator: L. Gurvits, Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, The Netherlands Lead Funding Agency: NWO and NSO, The Netherlands

Targets

• 

  Ganymede (flybys + orbit)

• 

  Callisto (multiple flybys)

• 

  Europa (two flybys)

See also

• Exploration of Jupiter
• Europa Multiple-Flyby Mission
• Galileo—former Jupiter orbiter
• Juno—en-route Jupiter orbiter
• Jupiter flybys: Pioneer 10/11; Voyager 1/2; Ulysses; Cassini–Huygens; New Horizons
• Moons of Jupiter

External links

• ESA's JUICE page
• Future Planetary Exploration JUICE—Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter Revised Proposal
• Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (2011) (OPAG October 2011 Presentations)
• JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) (OPAG March 2012 Presentations)