The path to Jupiter is long, which is why the ESA “Juice” spacecraft uses other celestial bodies to brake, accelerate and change its trajectory.
Darmstadt – The “Zoos” space probe is on its way to the planet from April 2023 Jupiter and its moons. But now the study is from the European Space Agency Isa First “home” returns and Earth and The monday It came very close. There is a special reason for this: the path to Jupiter was long and the probe used the Earth and the Moon to change its direction.
“Juice” – short for “Jupiter Ice Moons Explorer” – came very close to Earth: on August 20 it flew at an altitude of 6,840 kilometers over Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He took some pictures with his cameras and collected data with eight of the ten scientific instruments. “Everything went smoothly and we were delighted to have ‘Juice’ back so close to Earth,” says Ignacio Danko, Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA.
ESA space probe “Juice” flies past the Moon and Earth
Almost 24 hours before the Earth flyby, “Juice” had already flown close to the Moon. According to ESA, the spacecraft’s speed has increased by 0.9 km/s compared to a flight past an Earth satellite. Sonne. Additionally, the “juice” was directed toward Earth. The flyby of the Sun reduced the speed of “Juice” relative to the Sun by 4.8 km/s and changed the trajectory by 100 degrees.
Jupiter – the target of the ESA space probe – is on average about 800 million kilometers from Earth. For the direct route, the probe must have more fuel than is possible. That’s why “Juice” uses other planets to change its path and, above all, gain speed. However, the flight speed of Earth and Moon is not used to gain high speed. On the contrary: it slowed down space exploration.
Space probe “Juice” has taken a “shortcut” through the inner solar system
However, something else is very important: “Juice” is now on a direct path to Venus – which will be used to gain speed in August 2025. Two more Earth flybys are planned for September 2026 and January 2029 – again to build momentum. If Isa had gained momentum using the Earth-Moon flyby, it would have waited a long time for its next flyby of a planet (… tuesday) will have to wait, the space agency writes on its website. Instead, there is now a “shortcut” inside solar system was taken.
A seemingly simple flyby of the Earth and the Moon is actually a complex maneuver, the ESA insists. However, the hazardous flyby of the two celestial bodies managed to save about 100 to 150 kilograms of fuel.
Esa is testing “Juice” space probes on Earth and the Moon
In the coming weeks, the “Juice” instruments intend to release images taken of the Moon and Earth – including by the high-resolution camera “JANUS”. “The timing and location of this double flyby allows us to fully study the behavior of the JUICE instruments,” says mission operations scientist Claire Vallatt.
The data can now be used to prepare instruments for their visit to Jupiter. “Because we know the physical properties of the Earth, the Moon and the space environment so well, this is the best place to understand how the instruments respond to the actual target,” Vallad continued. (tab)
