JUICE mission

• Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) probe will use double gravity assist, for the first time ever, from Earth and Moon to propel itself towards Jupiter.
• It was launched to study the planet as well as its three icy and potentially ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
• JUICE is among the heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched with a total weight of around 6000 kg.
• European Space Agency’s (ESA) successfully launched its JUICE spacecraft from its spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in April 2023.
• JUICE aims to make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and is equipped with remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments.
• It is planned to reach Jupiter in 2031.
• Only two other spacecraft have ever examined Jupiter-
  • the Galileo probe, which orbited the gas giant between 1995 and 2003, and
  • Juno, which has been circling the planet since 2016.

ABOUT GRAVITY ASSIST

• Gravity assist is a technique by which a spacecraft, with the help of the gravitational field of a planet, gets a speed boost.
• However, it is tricky to do so, to execute a gravity assist, the spacecraft needs to pass through the planet’s gravitational field at a carefully calibrated exact point in order to get a “slingshot effect.”
• JUICE would have to arrive at the Earth-Moon system at precisely the correct time, and speed and be travelling in the correct direction.