The Liquid spacecraft from the European Space Agency, which was launched in April 2023, is scheduled to make a groundbreaking discovery when it travels to Jupiter next month. The aircraft, presently 10 million kilometres from Earth, may implement the weight of both the Moon and Earth to save gasoline on its eight-year tour to investigate the potential for extra-terrestrial living on Jupiter’s icy moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Preparation for this intricate maneuver have begun at the ESA’s place operations center in Darmstadt, Germany. Wine is expected to reach Jupiter’s program in July 2031, taking a longer course than Nasa’s Europa Clipper aircraft, which is scheduled to launch this October and reach a year earlier.
The decision to choose the scenic course was made in part because the Ariane 5 rocket’s limitations prevented the launch of Juice, which was not strong enough for a clear shot to Jupiter, which is located about 800 million kilometers away.
” The only alternative is to use magnetic assists”, explained Arnaud Boutonnet, the ESA’s mind of evaluation for the objective. By flying close to stars, satellites can utilize their magnetic draw to change lessons, speed up, or slow down. While many other space missions have used planets for weight boosts, the approaching Earth-Moon flyby will be a “world initial”, according to the ESA, as it will be the primary “double weight help shot” using boosts from two worlds in succession.
Juice will pass 750 kilometers above the Moon on August 19 before passing through Earth the following day, moving at” 3.3 % a second” rather than” 3.3 % if we had n’t added the Moon,” Boutonnet noted.
Juice will use powerful binoculars and telescopes to take photos and test its numerous instruments during its flyby, and some amateur skygazers on Earth might be able to spot the probe as it passes Southeast Asia.
The manoeuvre has been meticulously planned for years, but it will not be without challenges. ” We are aiming for a mouse hole”, Boutonnet emphasised, noting that even the slightest error during the Moon slingshot could be amplified by Earth’s gravity, potentially risking the spacecraft entering and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. The ground team will closely monitor the spacecraft and have a 12- to 18-hour window to determine and adjust its trajectory if necessary.
If the maneuver is successful, Juice will continue its journey through interplanetary space, passing through Earth twice in 2026 and 2029 before finally setting foot on Jupiter. Once at Jupiter, Juice will perform an impressive 35 gravitational assists as it bounces around the planet’s ocean moons, with its trajectory resembling” a real plate of spaghetti”, according to Boutonnet, who added,” What we’re doing with the Earth-Moon system is a joke in comparison”.
