A European spacecraft launched a rocket on Friday on a decades-long mission to explore Jupiter and its three icy moons that may contain buried oceans.
The journey began with a perfect morning aboard the European Ariane rocket from French Guiana on the coast of South America. But there were some tense minutes later as the controllers waited for a signal from the spacecraft.
When contact was finally confirmed almost an hour after the flight, the Mission Control Agency in Germany declared: “The spacecraft is alive!”
The robotic explorer, named Juice, will take eight years to reach Jupiter, where it will explore not only the largest planet of the solar system, but also Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. The three ice-covered moons are thought to contain subterranean oceans where marine life could exist.
Then, perhaps the most impressive feat of all, Juice will attempt to orbit Ganymede: No spacecraft has ever orbited a moon other than our own.
With so many moons – 95 moons in the end – astronomers consider Jupiter a minor moon solar system its own, with quests like Juice long overdue.
“This is a mission to answer the scientific questions that are burning for everyone. we,” said the director general of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher after the launch. “Of course, one of these questions is: Is there life out there?”
It can’t find life, “but Juice will determine the habitability of these icy moons around Jupiter,” he added.
The spacecraft is making a long, detour to Jupiter, covering 4 billion miles (6.6 billion km)
It will swoop within 125 miles (200 km) of Callisto and 250 miles (400 km) from Europa and Ganymede, completing 35 side flybys as it orbits Jupiter. It will then brake to fly into Ganymede orbit, the main goal of the €1.6 billion (nearly $1.8 billion) mission.
Not only is Ganymede the solar system’s largest moon — it surpasses Mercury — but it also has its own magnetic field with brilliant auroras at the poles.
Even more intriguing, it is said to have an underground ocean containing more than Water than Earth. The same goes for Europa and its reported geysers, and the heavily cratered Callisto, a potential destination for humans due to its distance from Jupiter’s attenuated radiation belts, according to Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution, who was not involved in the Juice mission.
“The ocean worlds in our solar system are most likely to have life, so these large moons Jupiter are top candidates to look for,” said Sheppard, a moon hunter who helped discover more than 100 in the outer solar system.
The spacecraft, about the size of a minibus, won’t reach Jupiter until 2031, relying on its gravity-assisted transits. Earth and our moon, as well as Venus.
“These things take time – and they change our world,” said Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society. The California-based space advocacy group hosted a virtual watch party for the launch.
King Philippe and Prince Gabriel of Belgium, and two astronauts — Thomas Pesquet of France and Matthias Maurer of Germany — were among the spectators in French Guiana. Thursday’s launch attempt was marred by the threat of lightning.
Juice – short for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – will spend three years bouncing Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. The spacecraft will attempt to enter orbit around Ganymede in late 2034, orbiting the moon for almost a year before the flight controller sends it down in 2035, then if there’s enough fuel left.
Europa is particularly appealing to scientists hunting for signs of life beyond Earth. However, Juice will keep its Europa encounters to a minimum due to the intense radiation there so close to Jupiter.
Sensitive juices electronic device encased in lead to protect against radiation. The 14,000-pound (6,350 kg) spacecraft is also wrapped in a thermal blanket — temperatures near Jupiter hover around minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 230 degrees Celsius). And its solar panels stretch 88 feet (27 meters) from end to end to absorb more sunlight far from the sun.
Later next year, NASA will send an even more heavily guarded spacecraft to Jupiter, the long-awaited Europa Clipper, which will beat Juice to Jupiter by more than a year as it will launch on a powerful rocket than that of SpaceX. The two spacecraft will work together to study Europa like never before.
NASA has long dominated the exploration of Jupiter, beginning with flybys in the 1970s by the Pioneers and then Voyager. Only one spacecraft is still humming over Jupiter: NASA’s Juno, which just recorded its 50th orbit since 2016.
Europe provided nine scientific instruments for Juice, while NASA provided only one.
If Juice confirms past or present life-supported underground oceans, project scientist Olivier Witasse says the next step will be to drive drills through the icy crust and possibly even submarine.
“We have to be creative,” he said. “We can still think of it as science fiction, but sometimes science fiction can blend in with reality.”
