Tor Vergata takes part in one of ESA's largest space missions: ESA Juice on Jupiter
A spacecraft will set off on an eight-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, focusing on moons that could offer clues in the search for extraterrestrial life.
The ESA Juice mission is ready to take off: The robotic mission that will leave for Jupiter from the ESA - European Space Agency, aiming to closely study three of Jupiter’s satellites: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.
On the occasion of the launch, scheduled for 13 April at 2.15 pm, the ASI - Italian Space Agency is organizing a hybrid event at its headquarters to explore the Italian role and the important study opportunities deriving from this new space adventure. The ESA mission will have the objective of investigating the potential habitability of Jupiter's icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, thanks to a suite of ten instruments.
>> LIVE STREAMING << (Starts at 12.00pm on 13 April)
About the mission
The Italian Space Agency, supported by the national scientific community, contributes to the mission with three scientific instruments Janus, Rime and 3GM plus a fourth, Majis, under French leadership created through a bilateral agreement between ASI and the French space agency CNES.
The tools will help scientists study the environment of the planet and its moons and have also been implemented through various international cooperations between ASI and JPL/NASA, the German DLR agency, CNES and the Israeli space agency ISA.
Upon arriving at its destination in 2031, Juice will make 35 flybys of the giant's moons in the Solar System. The mission will end in 2034 when the Juice probe will study the Ganymede satellite: it will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than the Earth's.
Tor Vergata's Contribution
The Institutions and Universities that make up the scientific teams for the 4 instruments with Italian participation are:
- INAF - National Institute of Astrophysics (with offices in Rome, Teramo, Padua and Catania)
- Tor Vergata University of Rome
- University of Trento
- Sapienza University of Rome
- University of Rome Tre
- D'Annunzio University of Pescara
- Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK)
- University of Bologna
- Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG) of the CNR
- Partenope University of Naples
- CISAS - University of Padua
- Politecnico of Milan
- University of Salento.
As far as industries are concerned, the creation of the instruments sees the involvement of both Thales Alenia Space which created the Rime instrument, the 3GM Ka-band transponder and the HAA accelerometer, and Leonardo. Leonardo supplied the hyperspectral optical head to observe and characterize clouds, ice and minerals on the surfaces of the three moons. Leonardo also designed the JUICE solar panels, the largest ever built for an interplanetary mission.
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