European Space Agency (ESA) is set to launch a satellite for its long-awaited JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) Mission so ESA is set to launch JUICE. It is one of the most ambitious missions of the organization ever.
The satellite will leave the Earth for a journey of 8 years and reach the moons of Jupiter planet. ESA’s satellite will evaluate if there are suitable conditions for living organisms’ inhabitation. “In every extreme environment on Earth, whether that’s high acidity, high radioactivity, low temperature, high temperature – we find microbial life in some form,” says Prof Carole Mundell, the director of science at ESA.
Launch Ariane-5 Rocket
The satellite is set in the motion on an Ariane-5 rocket to be launched from Kourou, French Guiana. Ariane-5 will expedite the spacecraft in the vicinity of the inner Solar System as it doesn’t have sufficient energy to send JUICE directly to Jupiter. A series of flybys of Venus and Earth will then gravitationally sling the mission out to its expected destination. JUICE has to finish 35 close passes of the moons to reach 400km of their surfaces before settling into orbit around Ganymede. There are 10 instruments in the spacecraft. It consists of various cameras, particle detectors, and a radar to map sub-surface features.
Juice: The ESA is set to launch JUICE
Minimum Possibilities of Life
There are adequate pieces of evidence available that show these icy bodies Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede (moons of Jupiter planet) hold oceans of liquid water at their depth. ESA is set to launch JUICE aims to assess if there is a minimal possibility of having a long-lasting presence of small microbial organisms on these moons.
The essential condition for the existence of life is liquid water, nutrients, a stable source of energy, and time. According to many scientists, Mars is the most suitable planet to host extra-terrestrial life in the future. However, if JUICE succeeds in its journey then Jupiter will be considered as an alternative. The study of the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe will solve major problems of living organisms in the future and help the next generation to sustain itself for a longer time.
