JUICE mission

[Kerbolitto]

Hey there, not sure if this has been discussed or if I'm asking dumb questions :

Juice will be orbited around Ganymede on an equatorial orbit.

Do you guys think this will be a big limitation in regard of

  - available power (photovoltaic)

  - the quantity and quality of experiments (no flyby above poles)

  - transmission rate and delays

Is it even possible to put a craft on polar orbit when the moon is orbiting that close of Jupiter ?

[Wjolcz]

1 hour ago, Kerbolitto said:

Is it even possible to put a craft on polar orbit when the moon is orbiting that close of Jupiter ?

I'd think so. Since Juno is in a polar orbit. It's just a matter of setting your Ap/Pe right and getting an encounter.

[Kerbolitto]

9 minutes ago, Wjolcz said:

I'd think so. Since Juno is in a polar orbit. It's just a matter of setting your Ap/Pe right and getting an encounter.

But Juno is on polar around Jupiter, maybe it would use too much dV to lower Ap because there's less possibility to use gravity assist with a craft not on the ecliptic ? Maybe when near Ganymede the low TWR doesn't allow for a fast enough capture when arriving from polar ?

[cubinator]

47 minutes ago, Kerbolitto said:

But Juno is on polar around Jupiter, maybe it would use too much dV to lower Ap because there's less possibility to use gravity assist with a craft not on the ecliptic ? Maybe when near Ganymede the low TWR doesn't allow for a fast enough capture when arriving from polar ?

The encounter and the time needed for the burn shouldn't be much different than for an equatorial orbit. You'd just have to set your Jupiter inclination slightly higher.

[Kerbolitto]

Okay, so why do you think they're going equatorial ? I just thought you'd have lot more time to power the craft, transmit data and scan all the surface from polar. I'm obviously not saying this is a better idea or anything I'm just curious about this specific choice.

[Wjolcz]

16 minutes ago, Kerbolitto said:

Okay, so why do you think they're going equatorial ? I just thought you'd have lot more time to power the craft, transmit data and scan all the surface from polar. I'm obviously not saying this is a better idea or anything I'm just curious about this specific choice.

From wikipedia:

In October 2029, when it will arrive in Jupiter system, JUICE will perform first flyby of Ganymede for preparation to the orbital insertion ≈7.5 hours later. First orbit will be elongated, and first Jupiter closest approach will take place in May 2030. After that, orbits will be closer and closer to the Jupiter, and it finally will be resulted by a circular orbit. First Europa flyby will take place in October 2030. JUICE will enter the highly inclination orbit, making possible exploration of Jupiter's polar regions. JUICE will study the Jupiter's magnetosphere. Callisto flyby in April 2031 will put JUICE on normal equatorial orbit. Also, there is a transit of Europa and Io that will occur on January 27, 2032.

 

So they want to do flybys of other moons. Equatorial makes way more sense if you want to do that. Besides, sun-synchronous orbit around Ganymede might not be stable so they will probably waste less fuel adjusting the orbit if it's equatorial.

Edited June 19, 2019 by Wjolcz

[Kerbolitto]

Thank you! Well yes it's certainly easier this way, also it might be very hard to do precision flybys with all the stuff floating around Jupiter.

[Maria Sirona]

Juice is launching soon, so this thread is relevant again! Fun fact: there was a finnish musician named Juice Leskinen

[SpaceExplorerW]

On 6/19/2019 at 5:11 PM, Kerbolitto said:

Do you guys think this will be a big limitation in regard of

 

  - available power (photovoltaic)

To be that far from the sun is a big limitation but the spacecraft has solar panels with an area of 85 m2 They will generate around 700–900 Watts (source: https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/science/Juice-LaunchKit.pdf )

[Minmus Taster]

Gotta say I'm really looking forward to this mission, go JUICE!

[SpaceExplorerW]

If you want more info about the whole mission since its beginning, a friend discovered this website from ESA ! https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/juice#spacecraft

(Yes i love this mission)

[Gargamel]

Bah.    Scrubbed launch.  

[Gargamel]

Well it launched and nobody said anything?!  
 

European Space Agency: Blast off for Jupiter icy moons mission https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65273857

 

[Dafni]

1 hour ago, Gargamel said:

Well it launched and nobody said anything?!  
 

European Space Agency: Blast off for Jupiter icy moons mission https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65273857

 

I was at the launch event in Berne, as some of our related workgroups here contributed to some of the instruments.

Godspeed JUICE!

[tater]

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Work_continues_to_deploy_Juice_RIME_antenna

[DDE]

JUICE is in the good company of Galileo.

[tater]

12 minutes ago, DDE said:

JUICE is in the good company of Galileo.

The loss of the high gain at least had a work-around. The radar is a pretty important detector for the mission goals, however. Hopefully they shake it loose.

[darthgently]

With the cost of F9 launches so low now, it might make sense to test some of these deployment mechanisms in LEO prior to launching the real deal depending on importance of mission.  JUICE could be seen as that important. This is assuming the deployment issue is related to temps or micro g environment 

 

[magnemoe]

On 4/28/2023 at 10:37 PM, darthgently said:

With the cost of F9 launches so low now, it might make sense to test some of these deployment mechanisms in LEO prior to launching the real deal depending on importance of mission.  JUICE could be seen as that important. This is assuming the deployment issue is related to temps or micro g environment 

An point, now they can test this in large vacuum chambers after doing shaking to simulate launches and more so to stress it, and even doing an test launch of an test version would not guarantee something going don't wrong with the real deployment. 
 

[tater]

Great news!

 

[AckSed]

Damn, that's a relief. So will the dish unfold automatically now?

[Sylvi Fisthaug]

On 5/13/2023 at 1:43 PM, AckSed said:

Damn, that's a relief. So will the dish unfold automatically now?

It's the long shiny thing "popping" up and into view in the GIF. The instrument looks more like an antenna than a dish. 

Just learned of the news today from newest Deep Space Update from Scott Manley. I was so relieved.