In just a few hours, one of the most important launches of 2023 will take place from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana. The Ariane 5 rocket will send JUICE into space, a mission that will study the largest icy moons of Jupiter.
We have already talked in great detail about the technical mechanism of JUICE and its tasks. Recall the main thing. The main targets of JUICE will be the moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. It is believed that huge oceans hide under their icy surfaces. Scientists admit that they have conditions conducive to the formation and maintenance of life.
An Ariane 5 rocket will be used to launch JUICE. This mission will be the last in the history of the European carrier. It will be replaced by a new Ariane 6 rocket.
Live broadcast of JUICE launch
The launch of JUICE will take place on April 13 at 03:15 p.m. GMT+3. The event will be broadcast live on the ESA website and on ESA Web TV.
The planned sequence of events looks the following way. At 03:42 p.m., JUICE will separate from the upper stage of Ariane 5. At 03:51 p.m., ESA will receive the first telemetry from it. At 04:55 p.m., the deployment of gigantic solar panels of the spacecraft, the total area of which is 90 m2, will take place. They will provide JUICE with enough energy to work in the vicinity of Jupiter. The device is equipped with a pair of selfie cameras designed to monitor the deployment of solar panels and a radar antenna. It is expected that the pictures taken by them will be published by ESA on the evening of April 13 or 14.
JUICE’s journey to its goal will take eight years. To gain the necessary speed, the device will perform four gravitational maneuvers (three in the vicinity of Earth and one near Venus). In addition, it will fly past the Rosa asteroid. The probe will enter a permanent orbit around Jupiter in the summer of 2031.
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