ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is being prepared for launch in the latest photos from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Here, engineers are attaching the spacecraft to the golden cylinder that we see directly underneath; this ‘payload adapter’ will connect Juice to the Ariane 5 launcher that will carry it into space. The process involved tightening the clamp band and connecting cables. This activity marks the start of the so-called ‘combined operations’ that ESA runs together with Arianespace in the run up to launch.
Next Juice will be ready for fuelling. Usually spacecraft are first fuelled and then connected to the payload adapter, but for technical reasons the order has been swapped for Juice. After fuelling, Juice will be positioned on top of the Ariane 5, ready for launch on 13 April.
Juice is humankind’s next bold mission to the outer Solar System. It will make detailed observations of gas giant Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. This ambitious mission will characterise these moons with a powerful suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments to discover more about these compelling destinations as potential habitats for past or present life. Juice will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giant systems across the Universe.
Find out more about Juice in ESA’s launch kit
Click here for original story, Juice ready to connect to Ariane 5
Source: ESA Top Multimedia