The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer spacecraft, nicknamed Juice, is set to be launched on the Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 14:15 CET, news outlets reported.
Studying Jupiter and its icy moons as ‘possible habitats’
After arriving at Jupiter in mid-2031, Juice will make “detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments,” the ESA said.
The mission is designed to “characterise these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, explore Jupiter’s complex environment in depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe,” according to officials.
Worth EUR 1.6 billion, Juice features scientific and technical contributions from 23 countries, including a notable contribution from Poland, the PAP news agency reported.
Poland provides science instruments
The Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) oversaw the development of one of Juice’s key science instruments, the so-called Radio and Plasma Waves Investigation (RPWI) instrument, which will help study Jupiter’s magnetic field, among other tasks, officials said.
PAN was also involved in the making of the Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument (SWI), a spectrometer designed to analyse Jupiter’s stratosphere and troposphere, as well as the surface of the planet’s icy moons, according to PAP.
Meanwhile, Astronika, a Polish company, helped produce components of the RPWI, such as Radio Wave Instruments (RWI) and extension arms, known as the Langmuir Probe – Plasma Wave Instrument (LP-PWI), according to officials.
Another Polish firm, Sener, supplied components for the solar panels that will power the Juice spacecraft, the PAP news agency reported.
In all, some 20 Polish entities, including Polish subsidiaries of global companies, have contributed to the Juice mission, it said.
Their work was overseen by the Polish government and funded by the ESA to the tune of some EUR 4.5 million, the Polish state news agency also reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, PAN, ESA, Space News
