Jupiter Mission Begins as Juice Blasts Off

Juice would take eight years to reach its destination near the icy moons of Jupiter. Credit: ESA

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) began on Friday its eight-year mission to assess the chance of life on the gas giant’s moons.

Juice was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket at the European Space Agency’s spaceport in French Guiana. The spacecraft would arrive at its destination in 2031 – it will take eight years to make the four billion-mile journey.

Less than half an hour after liftoff, Juice separated from the rocket carrying it into space. The team watching on the ground erupted into applause and cheers as the separation was confirmed.

“This is the beginning of the journey for Juice,” Arianespace expert Raphael Chevrier says. “This is absolutely incredible: Juice is on its way to Jupiter.”

Juice could tell us whether Jupiter’s moons can support life

It will use a gravitational sling-shot technique around Earth and Venus to give it enough energy to reach Jupiter. The €1.6bn probe could tell us whether Jupiter’s major moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – have the conditions to support simple life

Juice is unique because it will not explore planets close to Earth, like Mars. Instead, it will fly deep into space to search for water on distant worlds orbiting Jupiter and Saturn.

Scientists believe that these worlds have the greatest reserves of water in our solar system, making them promising candidates for finding alien life.

Olivier Witasse, the project scientist for this mission, explained that they hope to find a place with internal energy and liquid water around Jupiter. They believe that the icy moons of Jupiter have more water than Earth, which is why they are a prime target for this mission.

🚀 'This is one of the places in the solar system where life could exist besides from the Earth': The European Space Agency's new spacecraft hopes to make detailed observations about Jupiter and its moons pic.twitter.com/ybAJGumURV

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 14, 2023

Probes showed that Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, are covered in ice, hiding vast oceans of water. And in 2005, researchers discovered that Saturn’s moon Enceladus is spewing water and organic material from an underground ocean.

US astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson says, “If ever there was a next-best place to look for life, it’s here,” referring to these icy moons.

Although we have just one moon lighting up our night skies, Jupiter has at least 92. Some, including the four Galilean moons (the largest Jovian moons) formed alongside Jupiter nearly 4.5 billion years ago in the early Solar System.

Others have been drawn in and captured by this massive planet, adding to the collection over time.

Fewer than ten interplanetary missions have ever flown past Jupiter, with only two NASA missions stopping to orbit the planet and investigate further: the Galileo mission between 1995 and 2003, and the current Juno mission, launched in 2011.

These are the only two to have also made dedicated passes of the moons, gathering valuable information for upcoming missions.

Juice will use its suite of science instruments to check out the thicknesses of the moons’ icy crusts, what they’re made of, and look for subsurface liquid water. On Europa in particular, it will look for evidence of organic molecules.