Juice

Airbus Defence and Space has signed a €350m agreement to develop and build European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE spacecraft that will study and explore Jupiter and its icy moons.

Under the deal, Airbus and a consortium of more than 60 companies will build the JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) spacecraft, which is scheduled to be launched in 2022.

JUICE is part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme and will be Europe’s first mission to Jupiter.

The spacecraft will mainly study the Jovian system and try to find out liveable zones in the four largest moons of Jupiter, including Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Before reaching the Jovian system around Jupiter, JUICE will cruise for 7.5 years around Earth, Venus and Mars. This cruising will save fuel and energy of the spacecraft.

"When the project reaches its peak activity around 2017-2018, up to 150 people will be working in the prime project team."

After reaching Jupiter’s orbit, JUICE will spend 3.5 years circling around the planet. Towards the end, the spacecraft will enter into the orbit of Ganymede, one of the icy moons and take a full tour around it.

Airbus Defence and Space Space Systems head François Auque said: "Building on the expertise we developed on our sites in Toulouse (France), Friedrichshafen (Germany), Stevenage (UK) and Madrid (Spain), the Airbus Defence and Space project team is now running at full speed and the first equipment is expected for delivery in mid-2016.

"The selection of subcontractors has started and will be completed by 2017, and we will be prime contractor for an industrial consortium of more than 60 European companies.

"When the project reaches its peak activity around 2017-2018, up to 150 people will be working in the prime project team."

Dedicated navigation cameras will be used aboard the spacecraft during the entire mission.

In order to carry out the mission, JUICE will carry ten pieces of equipment, including optical, sub-millimetre, radar, laser altimeter, magnetic, electric, plasma and particle sensors, and radio-science.

Weighing 5.2t, JUICE will be powered by a 97m² solar generator.

Airbus was previously part of other scientific mission such as Venus (Venus Express), Mars (Mars Express),Titan (Huygens), and comet 67P / Chuyrumov-Gerasimenko (Rosetta) and others.

Image: Airbus signing contract with ESA. Photo: courtesy of Airbus Defence and Space.