The launch of the Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission, scheduled for 1:15 p.m. (Portuguese time) this Thursday, was postponed to Friday due to the possibility of strong winds and lightning.
Today’s launch is postponed due to the risk of lightning. See you tomorrow! https://t.co/S6tUKukJDX
-ESA (@esa) April 13, 2023
Once it reaches the planet, eight years from now, in 2031, the Juice mission will spend three and a half years in the Jupiter system, and in the final phase of its exploration, it will enter orbit around the largest moon, Ganymede.
It is expected that the mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), which cost 1,600 million euros and had the collaboration of the North American (NASA), Japanese (JAXA) and Israeli (ISA) space agencies in terms of instrumentation and ‘hardware ‘ ‘, ends in September 2035.
The satellite includes components manufactured by the Portuguese companies Efacec, LusoSpace, Active Space Technologies, Deimos Engenharia and FHP – Frezite High Performance.
The first scientific data is expected in 2032.
Jupiter is 11 times bigger than Earth. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and has a large ocean below its surface.
Source: TSF
