New mission to icy moons of Jupiter blasts off

A European spacecraft rocketed off Friday on a decade-long quest to explore Jupiter and its three icy moons that may harbor oceans.

The journey began with an early morning liftoff by a European Ariane rocket from French Guiana in South America. Arianespace chief executive Stephane Israel called it a “perfect launch.”

But there were a few tense minutes as controllers waited for a signal from the spacecraft for almost an hour to board.

When contact was confirmed, Bruno Sousa of the European Space Agency announced from mission control in Germany: “The spacecraft is alive!”

It will take the robotic explorer, dubbed JUICE (for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), eight years to reach Jupiter, where it will be not only the largest planet in the solar system, but also Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. The three ice-covered moons are believed to have oceans beneath their icy surface, where marine life could exist.

Then, in perhaps its most impressive feat, JUICE will attempt to orbit Ganymede: No other spacecraft has ever orbited the moon other than itself.

With so many moons – in the final count of 92 – astronomers consider Jupiter to be its own mini solar system, with missions like JUICE long overdue.

“We will not detect life with JUICE,” said European Space Agency project scientist Olivier Witasse.

But learning more about the moon and its oceans will potentially bring scientists closer to answering questions that lie elsewhere.

“That will be the most interesting aspect of the mission,” he said.

Search for life

JUICE took a long circuitous route to Jupiter, 6.6 billion kilometers across.

It will swoop within 200 kilometers of Callisto and 400 kilometers of Europa and Ganymede, completing 35 flybys while orbiting Jupiter. Then it will hit the brakes to orbit Ganymede, the main target of the 1.6 billion euro ($2.4 billion Cdn) mission.

Ganymede is not only the largest moon in the solar system – surpassing Mercury – but it has its own magnetic field with spectacular auroras at its poles.

Even more amazing, it is thought to have an underground ocean that contains more water than Earth. Ditto for Europa and the reported geysers, and Callisto is heavily cratered, a potential place for humans given the distance from Jupiter’s debilitating radiation belt, according to the Carnegie Institution’s Scott Sheppard, who was not involved in the JUICE mission.

“Sea worlds in our solar system are the most likely to host life, so this large moon of Jupiter is a prime candidate to look for,” said Sheppard, a moon hunter who has helped find more than 100 in the outer solar system.

The spacecraft, about the size of a small bus, won’t reach Jupiter until 2031, depending on gravitational flybys of Earth and our moons, as well as Venus.

“It takes time – and it changes our world,” said Planetary Society chief executive Bill Nye. The California-based space advocacy group held a virtual watch party for the launch.

King Philippe and Prince Gabriel of Belgium, and the astronaut couple – Thomas Pesquet of France and Matthias Maurer of Germany – were among the spectators in French Guiana. Thursday’s launch attempt was thwarted by the threat of lightning.

NASA also sent a spacecraft to Jupiter

JUICE – short for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – will spend three years buzzing Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. The spacecraft will attempt to enter orbit around Ganymede in late 2034, orbiting the moon for nearly a year before the flight controller collapses in 2035, later if enough fuel remains.

Europa is of particular interest to scientists who are hunting for signs of life beyond Earth. JUICE will minimize European encounters, however, due to the intense radiation so close to Jupiter.

JUICE’s sensitive electronics are encased in lead to protect them from radiation. The 6,350-kilogram spacecraft is also wrapped in a thermal blanket – the temperature near Jupiter hovers around -230 C. And a solar panel is 27 meters long from the tip to soak in plenty of sunlight away from the sun.

Late next year, NASA will send a more protected spacecraft to Jupiter, the long-awaited Clipper Europa, which will beat JUICE to Jupiter by more than a year because it will launch on a more powerful SpaceX rocket. The two spacecraft will work together to study Europa like never before.

NASA has long dominated exploration of Jupiter, beginning with flybys in the 1970s by the twin Pioneers and then the Voyagers. Only one spacecraft remains at Jupiter: NASA’s Juno, which just entered its 50th orbit since 2016.

Europe provided nine JUICE science instruments, with NASA providing only one.

If JUICE confirms the subsurface seas are suitable for past or present life, Witasse said the next step would be to send drills to penetrate the ice crust and possibly submarines.

“We have to be creative,” he said. “We can still think science fiction, but sometimes science fiction merges with reality.”