The European Space Agency is meticulously monitoring and adjusting its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, which involves using gravity assists from the Galilean moons and Earth to propel the spacecraft towards the largest planet in our solar system.
As part of its daring endeavour, JUICE is scheduled to execute a perilous trajectory between August 19 and 20, with the spacecraft potentially reaching its closest point to our planet around midnight on that day. What is the time in Eastern Time (UTC+02:00) on August 20?
The European Space Agency announced in a press release that the spacecraft’s planned aerobatics – a lunar-Earth flyby and double Earth swing-by – would constitute a “double world first.” The gravity assist will modify the analysis vehicle’s velocity and trajectory, but achieving this accurately will be challenging, the company notes. Even a single minute mistake could potentially jeopardize the entire endeavour, the ESA warned.
JUICE embarked on its mission with a successful launch and a subsequent trajectory correction just seven months later. As it journeys through previous eras of Earth’s history, the spacecraft will utilize the planet’s gravitational forces to slow down and alter its trajectory, aiming towards Venus in August 2025 before looping back towards our home planet. (To effectively curb fuel consumption, a deliberate slowing pace is crucial in order to gradually reduce the amount of gasoline needed to transition smoothly into orbit around various planetary bodies.)
The spacecraft is scheduled to complete two additional orbits of Earth in September 2026 and January 2029, respectively, to fine-tune its trajectory and achieve the necessary velocity to successfully enter Jupiter’s orbit by 2031. From there, JUICE will explore the Jupiter system, observing the fifth planet from our solar system and its icy moons in unprecedented detail.
According to Ignacio Tanco, JUICE’s spacecraft operations supervisor, the lunar-Earth flyby will likely be akin to “threading a needle at high speed, where the margin of error is mere millimeters.”
The ESA notes that only the luckiest observers with telescopes or high-powered binoculars will be able to spot the spacecraft as it flies directly overhead of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. While observing alongside may not be a bad approach, a better strategy would likely be to monitor the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Twitter or (previously Twitter) account, where the company plans to post images taken by JUICE’s cameras throughout its flyby on Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft isn’t just monitoring Venus and Jupiter – other planets are also under scrutiny. What’s the significance of the purple planet and the snaking scar? Counterpart, NASA is seeking private-sector assistance to. As NASA contemplates the post-2030 era, it is actively seeking collaborations with private space companies to ensure a seamless transition following the retirement of the International Space Station.
