Europa travels to Jupiter and its moons for the first time, so you can watch the launch

Today April 13thif there are no technical or climatic setbacks, the mission will be launched juice of the European Space Agency (ESA)which will carry a 27 meter long ship, up to Jupiter and some of his moons.

He Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer either juice ESA will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large oceanic moons: Callisto, Europe and, very especially, ganymede.

One of the novelties of the mission is that Juice is going to explore the moons as possible habitatsboth to find extraterrestrial life, and to consider a possible human colony.

The European ship Juice leaves for Jupiter

juice is going to accomplish a number of firsts, the likes of which have never been done in the short history of human space exploration. It will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than our own, ganymede. And on its way to Jupiter, it will perform the first Moon-Earth gravity assist to save fuel.

As a curiosity, this will be the last mission of the Ariane 5 rocketwhich will be replaced by the spectacular and more modern Ariane 6.

Here you can see how it is juiceand the space bodies that it will explore: JupiterVenus, and three moons of Jupiter.

the ship of the European Space Agency It will withstand extreme conditions during his 10 year missionso it has been conveniently protected.

It is going to travel to one of the most radiation environments in the Solar System, so it is “lined” with anti-radiation shields.

In the area of ​​space to which it travels, sunlight is 25 times weaker than it is on Earth. That’s why it takes 85 square meters of solar panels.

will bear temperatures of 250 degrees Celsius on Venus and 230 degrees below zero on Jupiter. A difference of 500 degrees that will be balanced by its multilayer thermal coating.

Eventually, it will move hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, so incorporate a 2.5 meter antenna for communications.

Juice integrates 10 next-generation scientific instrumentswhich will offer new and important data on Jupiter and its moons. Among them are the most powerful remote sensing, geophysical and in situ systems ever launched into the Solar System. Optical cameras, spectrometer, spectrograph, radar sonar, planetary radio interferometer, and others.

But don’t expect that juice start submitting photos of Jupiter in a few months. It will take years to arrive. will not reach Jupiter until the year 2031.

The journey of several years is due to the fact that juice is not a small probe, but a ship 27 meters long counting the solar panels, and to travel to Jupiter with only solar energy you need to use the gravity of the Earth, the Moon and Venusas a “catapult” to propel itself towards Jupiter.

the launch of the rocket Ariane 5, which will launch the Juice spacecraft, will take place at ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in South America. It will be at 2:15 p.m. Spanish time, today April 13th. You can follow it live here:

ESA Web TV is the new channel of the European Space Agencywhich broadcasts content 24 hours a day.

With the launch of the mission juiceEurope will put a ship in Jupiter and its moons Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede. It is one of the most important missions of the European Space Agencyin which Spain participates, along with 12 other European countries.