RELEASE: 13-060NASA SELECTS SCIENCE INSTRUMENT AND HARDWARE FOR EUROPEAN MISSION TO JUPITER-- Radar for Icy Moon Exploration: ... a radar sounder designed to penetrate the icy crust of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto to a depth of about 5 miles (9 kilometers). This will allow scientists to see for the first time the underground structure of these tectonically complex and unique icy worlds. ...
JUICE gained approval for its implementation phase from ESA’s Science Programme Committee during a meeting at the European Space Astronomy Centre near Madrid, Spain, on 19 and 20 November 2014.
At the November 2014 meeting of the SPC, the multilateral agreement for JUICE was also approved. This agreement provides the legal framework for provision of payload equipment and ongoing mission support between funding agencies. The parties to the agreement are the European Space Agency and the funding agencies of the European countries leading the instrument developments in the JUICE mission: the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italy); the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (France); the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany); the Swedish National Space Board, and the United Kingdom Space Agency. Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, and Switzerland participate via the PRODEX programme.
Airbus Defence & Space in France has been selected as the prime industrial contractor for ESA's JUICE mission to Jupiter and its icy moons.The agency's Industrial Policy Committee approved the award of the €350.8 million contract yesterday. Pending the negotiation of contractual details, this should allow work to start by the end of this month. The formal contract signing will take place after the summer break.The contract covers the industrial activities for the design, development, integration, test, launch campaign, and in-space commissioning of the spacecraft. The Ariane 5 launch is not included and will be procured later from Arianespace.
An important milestone was reached earlier this month, when the preliminary design of Juice and its interfaces with the scientific instruments and the ground stations were fixed, which will now allow a prototype spacecraft to be built for rigorous testing.The review also confirmed that the 5.3 tonne spacecraft will be compatible with its Ariane 5 launcher.
ESA will contribute 940 million euros (in 2014 terms) towards the overall budget of the mission, covering the construction of the spacecraft, an Ariane 5 launch, the operations and scientific ground segment, as well as the actual running of the mission. The mission’s 10 scientific instruments, including cameras, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, radio-science experiments, and sensors to monitor the magnetic field, will be paid for by the national space agencies of ESA’s member states.“There is a large involvement of the Italian Space Agency, which will deliver three instruments and contribute to a fourth one,” Sarri said. “Germany and Sweden are both responsible for two instruments. France and the UK will deliver one instrument each.”More than 60 companies will be involved in building components for the spacecraft, all of which have now been selected.
Watch this amazing video of our "unusual" test of #JUICE 🛰️ radar antenna hanging underneath a helicopter 🚁!Hanging underneath a helicopter the 16.60 meter antenna of the RIME instrument (RIME - Radar for Icy Moons Exploration) has been tested in various flight configurations during a two-days campaign.
JUICEThe overall schedule of the spacecraft is stable. The planned launch date is 1 June 2022 on an Ariane 5 ECA (in the middle of a launch window that starts on 20 May and closes on 10 June).
