ESA - JUICE

[jacqmans]

Jupiter mission passes space vacuum test
29/07/2021

ESA’s Juice mission to Jupiter has successfully endured a month of space-like conditions inside the Large Space Simulator, the largest vacuum chamber in Europe.

At 10 m wide and 15 m high, the Large Space Simulator (LSS) is big enough to accommodate an upended London double decker bus. It is part of ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands, the largest satellite testing facility in Europe.

The flight model of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, was exposed to vacuum a billion times lower than standard seal level pressure, along with representative temperature extremes the spacecraft will encounter on its journey to Jupiter, ranging from 250°C to -180 °C.

The LSS’s artificial Sun simulator recreated the searing sunlight Juice will experience during its 88-month cruise phase, which will include a flyby of Venus. Liquid nitrogen circulating through the walls of the chamber mimicked the chill of deep space.

After a month of round-the-clock monitoring, the chamber doors were opened on 15 July. Next the spacecraft will return to Airbus Defence and Space in France, for final preparations for its launch next year.

Once in the Jovian system Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments.

The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant exoplanets now known to orbit other stars.

[jacqmans]

[catdlr]

English Version?

[bolun]

https://twitter.com/ESA_JUICE/status/1424835586146320388

#JUICE is on the move !
On its way to get a hop on an Antonov, direction Toulouse!

[bolun]

https://twitter.com/AirbusSpace/status/1425144626458107904

✅#JUICE safely arrived in Toulouse 👍
Stay tuned 😉

[jacqmans]

Last stop on Earth at Airbus before odyssey to Jupiter for JUICE

Final integration and test in Toulouse before 2022 launch to meet tight interplanetary schedule
Almost nine year journey for four year mission around Jupiter moons: could there be new life habitats?

Toulouse, 12 August 2021 – The Airbus-built JUICE spacecraft, (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission) developed for the European Space Agency (ESA)  has arrived in Toulouse, where it will stay for its final assembly and test campaign at Airbus’ satellite integration centre, before being shipped to Kourou in French Guiana for launch on Ariane 5.

After three months of intense activities for thermal vacuum testing in the Large Space Simulator (LSS) chamber at the ESA test centre at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, JUICE is back at Airbus, the prime contractor. Unusually, it was transported by air to Toulouse, to save time so that it remains on track to meet the tight interplanetary schedule to reach the Jovian system.

Cyril Cavel, JUICE project Manager at Airbus said on arrival: “It’s the first time I have seen a satellite arriving in Toulouse by plane, which shows the importance of this mission for ESA and the scientific community. Now we at Airbus have to build on the great work of all of our industrial and scientific partners. I can’t wait for this ambitious mission to launch and to see the tremendous progress to human knowledge it will bring – even though we will have to wait almost 10 years, before it arrives at Jupiter!”

Opening of the pressurized protective container and transfer to the clean room has already been completed. Airbus will now finalise the flight configuration assembly including integration of the last instrument units and the largest satellite solar arrays ever to fly for planetary exploration. Last but not least, the environmental tests, including electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC), mechanical, deployment, and propulsion, will continue through until next year in the run up to launch.

The 6.2 ton JUICE spacecraft will set off in 2022 on its near 600 million-kilometre long journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft will carry 10 state-of-the-art scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, a radio-science experiment, and sensors to monitor electric and magnetic fields and the plasma environment in the Jovian system. JUICE will complete a unique tour of the Jupiter system that will include in-depth studies of three potentially ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

During its four year-long mission, JUICE will collect data to understand the conditions for giant gaseous planet formation and the emergence of deep life habitats. It will spend nine months orbiting the icy moon Ganymede analysing its nature and evolution, characterising its sub-surface ocean, and investigating its potential habitability.

As prime contractor for ESA, Airbus is leading an industrial consortium of more than 80 companies across Europe.

https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2021/08/last-stop-on-earth-at-airbus-before-odyssey-to-jupiter-for-juice.html

[GWR64]

Is the primary JUICE launch window in May/June 2022 impossible?

https://www.mps.mpg.de/juice-swi-arrives-in-toulouse

JUICE: SWI arrives in Toulouse

On the same day as the spacecraft, JUICE’s instrument SWI has arrived in Toulouse where the final preparations for the journey to Jupiter will take place. Launch is one year from now.

For the giant gas planet Jupiter, “visitors” from Earth a nothing new: the space probes Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini and New Horizons flew past Jupiter on their way to the outer solar system, the American space probe Galileo was on site from 1995 to 2003, and NASA's Juno probe has been orbiting the planet for five years. JUICE will arrive in 2031.
...

or there: https://www.mps.mpg.de/planetary-science/juice-mission

compare
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/29/scientists-optimistic-planetary-probes-wont-face-coronavirus-related-launch-delays/

JUICE’s primary launch window opens May 21, 2022, and extends until June 10 of that year. It will launch on an Ariane 5 ECA or Ariane 64 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

Assuming a launch in May or June 2022, JUICE will reach Jupiter in October 2029 and conduct a series of close flybys of three of Jupiter’s icy moons — Callisto, Europa and Ganymede — before entering orbit around Ganymede itself in December 2032.
...
The next launch opportunity for JUICE is just three months later — in August and September 2022. But the backup launch window would put JUICE on a slower trajectory toward Jupiter. The three-month slip would result in a two-year delay in JUICE’s arrival at the giant planet from 2029 to 2031.
...

[LouScheffer]

Is the primary JUICE launch window in May/June 2022 impossible?

https://www.mps.mpg.de/juice-swi-arrives-in-toulouse

JUICE: SWI arrives in Toulouse[...]  Launch is one year from now. [...] JUICE will arrive in 2031.
...

or there: https://www.mps.mpg.de/planetary-science/juice-mission

compare
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/29/scientists-optimistic-planetary-probes-wont-face-coronavirus-related-launch-delays/

JUICE’s primary launch window opens May 21, 2022, and extends until June 10 of that year. It will launch on an Ariane 5 ECA or Ariane 64 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

Assuming a launch in May or June 2022, JUICE will reach Jupiter in October 2029 and conduct a series of close flybys of three of Jupiter’s icy moons — Callisto, Europa and Ganymede — before entering orbit around Ganymede itself in December 2032.
...
The next launch opportunity for JUICE is just three months later — in August and September 2022. But the backup launch window would put JUICE on a slower trajectory toward Jupiter. The three-month slip would result in a two-year delay in JUICE’s arrival at the giant planet from 2029 to 2031.
...

If so, this is a direct result of choosing Ariane as the launch vehicle (as if they had a choice). Since the trajectory starts with an Earth flyby, there is an identical (shorter mission) launch opportunity in 2023.  But likely this requires a DLA that Ariane cannot reach with a direct ascent, as it requires insertion into parking orbit, then an escape trajectory firing later.  But the Ariane second stage cannot restart, so the work around is to insert JUICE into an Earth-return trajectory in 2022, then use the Earth flyby to hit the required DLA.  So if they had a second stage that could re-start, they could launch on the faster trajectory in 2023, with the same launch energy.

[GWR64]

I became suspicious when Ovzon now reported, Ovzon 3 would be launched at the end of Q2 / 2022.
Since Arianespace has only one active Ariane 5 launch table, that would be actually not possible after JUICE.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=46592.msg2279433#msg2279433


And Airbus says (nebulous):

...
Cyril Cavel, JUICE project Manager at Airbus said on arrival: “It’s the first time I have seen a satellite arriving in Toulouse by plane, which shows the importance of this mission for ESA and the scientific community. Now we at Airbus have to build on the great work of all of our industrial and scientific partners. I can’t wait for this ambitious mission to launch and to see the tremendous progress to human knowledge it will bring – even though we will have to wait almost 10 years, before it arrives at Jupiter!”

...
https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2021/08/last-stop-on-earth-at-airbus-before-odyssey-to-jupiter-for-juice.html

[vjkane]

Does anyone know when in 2031 JUICE would now apparently arrive?

[GWR64]

in July,
link:

or there: https://www.mps.mpg.de/planetary-science/juice-mission

[vjkane]

in July,
link:

or there: https://www.mps.mpg.de/planetary-science/juice-mission

Thank you.

[GWR64]

ESA JUICE software, (I think, bohemian villages for me  )
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/spice/spice-for-juice

5.0   New Baseline trajectory, launch September 2022

[GWR64]

https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-358.html

JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer): Plans for the cruise phase
...
1. Trajectory during the cruise phase

The mission will be launched from Kourou with an Ariane 5. The baseline launch window is between 26 August – 15 September 2022, with a backup launch slot in August 2023. The interplanetary transfer sequence relies on gravity assist manoeuvres with Venus, Earth and the Moon. The Jupiter orbit insertion will be performed in July 2031. The cruise phase officially starts after the end of the near-Earth commissioning (launch + 3 months) and ends six months before the Jupiter orbit insertion, when the nominal science mission begins.
...
 

edit, the page as pdf, attached:
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-358.html?pdf

[GWR64]

https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/EPSC2021-358.html

In the meantime there is also a very interesting video to be seen there.
Scroll all the way down.
I don't know if it can be seen anywhere else at ESA. Didn't find it.

edit: Do not give up! Have found it.

[zubenelgenubi]

Cross-post; delayed to the 2023 launch window.

What happened?

Discussion regarding whether Ariane 5 or 6 will be used for a 2023 launch belongs here in the European sub-forum: Final Ariane 5 ECA+ launches

Multiple ESA mission webpages had their launch dates updated on November 8.

JUICE delayed to NET August 2023:

https://sci.esa.int/web/juice

Planned for launch in 2023, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=JUICE

JUICE is scheduled to be launched in a window running from 26 August to 15 September 2022 on an Ariane 5 from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. (A backup launch date is scheduled for August 2023, arriving at Jupiter in August 2031.)

[deadman1204]

Sadness.

I wonder how much its costing ESA to keep Arianne 5 around an extra year.

[bolun]

Winner of the JUICE up your rocket! art competition

Congratulations to Yaryna ( from Ukraine, the winner of the JUICE up your rocket! art competition. Her piece will decorate the rocket that will launch JUICE on its mission to Jupiter!

Related article: Children of the world join Europe’s mission to Jupiter

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/11/Winner_of_the_JUICE_up_your_rocket!_art_competition

Image credit: ESA

[bolun]

https://twitter.com/ESA_JUICE/status/1466348623990513669

For our 🇺🇦 Ukrainian followers, 👉 the interview to Yaryna, whose artwork will decorate the @ariane5 rocket 🚀 that will launch #JUICE into space !

@Arianespace @paxi @esascience

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5ALpnhAu9ck&list=PL1neMztLSbMMczWY1Wi-AKd0bvDtKUIpf&index=15

Happy to have you on board, Yaryna !

And a nice article on The Times Hub:

https://thetimeshub.in/a-drawing-of-an-eight-year-old-ukrainian-woman-will-be-depicted-on-a-giant-rocket

[GWR64]

ESA JUICE software, (I think, bohemian villages for me  )
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/spice/spice-for-juice

5.0   New Baseline trajectory, launch September 2022

same link updated:

5.0b23.1    New Baseline trajectory, launch April 2023

https://spiftp.esac.esa.int/data/SPICE/JUICE/kernels/mk/juice_crema_5_0b23_1.tm

- Launch on April, 5th 2023