Juice

JUICE, or Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, is a European Space Agency space probe designed to study the Jovian system with a focus on three large icy moons: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The mission seeks to determine whether any of these worlds host subsurface oceans, assess their potential habitability, and understand the interaction between the moons and Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

Selected as part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision program, JUICE was built by Airbus Defence and Space. It was launched on 14 April 2023 from Kourou aboard an Ariane 5 rocket and is powered by solar energy with a propulsion system for cruise and trajectory corrections. After a multi-year cruise, the spacecraft is planned to reach the Jupiter system in the early 2030s, conducting multiple flybys of Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede before entering orbit around Ganymede—the first mission to orbit a moon in the outer solar system.

The spacecraft carries a suite of about ten instruments designed to image the moons, map surface composition, probe interiors, and study Jupiter’s space environment. Key instruments include JANUS (visible camera), MAJIS (Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer), UVS (ultraviolet spectrograph), SWI (sub-millimeter wave instrument), GALA (Ganymede Laser Altimeter), J-MAG (magnetometer), and RPW (Radio and Plasma Wave Investigation), among others. These measurements aim to reveal ice shell thickness, oceanic activity, geology, and potential biosignatures, contributing to broader questions about habitability in the outer solar system.

JUICE is expected to operate for several years, delivering data that will complement other missions and advance understanding of icy worlds around gas giants.