ESA Juice takes off for Jupiter icy moons mission

Photo: ESA

The journey from Europe to the icy moons of Jupiter has already commenced as the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Juice satellite.

From the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, the Juice satellite was launched into space on an Ariane-5 rocket, BBC has reported.

As soon as it was confirmed that the stage separation process had been successful, there was jubilation, cheering, relief, and lots of hugs in the Kourou station.

The European Space Agency project is experiencing second-chance good fortune after the launch attempt on Thursday had to be aborted due to weather.

The 90sqm solar wings on the satellite are now emerging and have been verified to be producing electricity. Jupiter requires large solar arrays since it only receives a small portion of the light that falls on Earth.

"We have successfully deployed the solar arrays. We have a mission; we're flying to Jupiter; we go fully loaded with questions. Juice is coming, Jupiter! Get ready for it," announced Andrea Accomazzo, the operations director of Esa's mission control in Darmstad, Germany.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is being sent to the largest planet in the Solar System to study its major moons – Callisto, Ganymede and Europa.

These ice-crusted planets are expected to have enormous liquid water reserves, adds the BBC report.

The possibility of life on the moons piques scientists' curiosity.

This may come off as whimsical. Jupiter is located in the dark, outer regions of the Solar System, far from the Sun, and only receives one-quarter of the light that strikes Earth.

But the gravitational squeezing the gas giant planet exerts on its moons means they potentially have the energy and warmth to drive simple ecosystems - much like the ones that exist around volcanic vents on Earth's ocean floors.

"In the case of Europa, it's thought there's a deep ocean, maybe 100km deep, underneath its ice crust," said mission scientist Prof Emma Bunce from Leicester University, UK.

"That depth of ocean is 10 times that of the deepest ocean on Earth, and the ocean is in contact, we think, with a rocky floor. So that provides a scenario where there is mixing and some interesting chemistry," the researcher told BBC News.

Juice will conduct remote moon studies. It won't land; it will simply soar over their surfaces. The satellite's ultimate goal is Ganymede, the biggest moon in the Solar System. In 2034, it will complete its journey by entering Earth's orbit.

Radar will be used to look into the moons; lidar, a laser measurement device; magnetometers; and other sensors will gather data on the swirling particles that surround the moons. Lidar will be used to produce 3D maps of the moons' surfaces. The cameras are going to collect a tonne of images.

Juice won't be looking for particular "biomarkers" or attempting to find alien fish at the depths of the ocean.

Its task is to gather more information regarding potential habitability so that subsequent missions can address the life question more directly.

Already scientists are thinking about how they could put landers on one of Jupiter's frozen moons to drill through its crust to the water beneath.