Last updated on August 28th, 2024 at 04:13 pm
Paris: A spacecraft that launched last year is set to slingshot around Earth and the Moon next month in a groundbreaking, high-stakes maneuver as it continues its journey through the Solar System towards Jupiter.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Juice probe, which launched in April 2023, aims to explore whether Jupiter’s icy moons—Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa—might harbor extraterrestrial life in their vast, hidden oceans.
Currently 10 million kilometers (six million miles) from Earth, the six-tonne uncrewed spacecraft will pass by the Moon and Earth on August 19-20, using their gravitational forces to save fuel on its complex eight-year journey to Jupiter.
Staff at ESA’s space operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, have begun preparations for this challenging maneuver.
Its journey is more circuitous than that of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch in October and will arrive at Jupiter’s moons a year before Juice.
The Long and Winding Road
Juice’s extended route is partly due to the Ariane 5 rocket used to launch it, which wasn’t powerful enough to send it directly to Jupiter, about 800 million kilometers away. According to ESA, a direct journey would have required 60 tonnes of onboard fuel, but Juice carries only three tonnes.
“The only solution is to use gravitational assists,” explained Arnaud Boutonnet, ESA’s head of mission analysis.
By flying close to planets, spacecraft can use their gravitational pull to alter course, speed up, or slow down. Juice will pass 750 kilometers above the Moon on August 19 and then zip past Earth the following day. As Juice swings past Earth and the Moon, it will take photos and test its instruments. Some observers on Earth might even spot the probe as it passes over Southeast Asia, using telescopes or powerful binoculars.
‘Plate of Spaghetti’
Although the maneuver has been meticulously planned for years, it will not be easy. Even a slight miscalculation during its lunar slingshot could be magnified by Earth’s gravity, potentially causing the spacecraft to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. The ground team will closely monitor the spacecraft and will have 12-18 hours to adjust its trajectory if needed.
Boutonnet’s biggest concern is that the necessary course corrections could negate the benefits of the double-world slingshot, rendering the maneuver pointless.
If everything goes smoothly, Juice will continue its interplanetary journey. The spacecraft will head to Venus in 2025 for another gravitational boost and will fly past Earth twice more—in 2026 and 2029—before finally heading towards Jupiter.
The real challenge begins once Juice reaches Jupiter. “What we’re doing with the Earth-Moon system is a joke in comparison,” Boutonnet said, describing the spacecraft’s trajectory as resembling “a real plate of spaghetti.”