MSSL Planetary Science News
- Mars Advanced Summer School, China
- New Planetary Group Website Launched
- Cassini CAPS Team Meeting: Glacier National Park, Montana
- Workshop on future observations and study of Uranus
- Joint meeting of the European Planetology Network and Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Nantes, France
- 4th ExoMars Science Working Team Meeting, ESTEC, The Netherlands
- ScienceWatch interview with Prof. Andrew Coates
- Dr. Adam Masters wins the Robert Boyd Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement
- Planetary Group attends the 2011 Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco
- Dione's thin oxygen exosphere
- Dr. Gethyn Lewis attends a meeting of the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction Network
- Planetary group attends the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester
- Comet studies in the planetary group catch media attention at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting
- Planetary group scientists attend Cassini Magnetospheric and Plasma Science Meeting
- Selection of JUICE mission to Jupiter and Ganymede by ESA
- Planetary science group hosts Cassini CAPS Team Meeting 43
- Dr. Chris Arridge awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship
Selection of JUICE mission to Jupiter and Ganymede by ESA
8 May 2012
ESA's next "large class" (L-class) mission will be a mission called JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) to study the giant planet Jupiter, its planetary system and magnetosphere, and particularly its moon Ganymede.
Since 2007 scientists across Europe and beyond have been studying missions that have been in competition for the European Space Agency's (ESA) next "large-class" mission to be launched around 2022. On 2 May 2012 the ESA Space Program Committee selected JUICE from a set of three competing mission concepts which had been rigorously studied and investigated for more than five years.
JUICE will launch in 2022 and will arrive in the jovian system in 2030, finally entering orbit around Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, in 2032. The moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede are thought to host internal oceans underneath an icy crust and the mission will study these moons as potential habitats for life. JUICE will also continuously observe Jupiter's atmosphere and magnetosphere, and how the moons interact with Jupiter itself.
Prof. Andrew Coates has been involved in the definition of the mission and Dr. Chris Arridge has participated in the magnetospheres working group helping define the magnetospheric science that JUICE will address. Prof. Coates is also leading an international consortium involved in the development of a proposed instrument suite for JUICE.
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Page last modified on 08 may 12 18:57
