The JUICE spacecraft failed to fully deploy the antenna of one of its most important instruments.
The JUICE spacecraft, the first mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) to Jupiter and its moons, experienced its first outage. Gizmodo writes that the device has yet to fully deploy the antenna of the RIME radar, which is designed to probe the subterranean oceans of Jupiter’s moons for the presence of potential extraterrestrial life.
in 24News Breaker. Technology emerged telegraph channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss the latest and exciting news from the world of science!
JUICE, worth 870 million euros, set off on a long journey to Jupiter, which will take up to 8 years, on April 14 this year. It will arrive on the planet no earlier than the summer of 2031 and will study both Jupiter itself and its icy moons.
Focus has already written about this mission and also wrote that JUICE has sent the first images of Earth from space.
One of the 11 instruments of the spacecraft is the powerful RIME radar, with which it will be possible to find out not only whether there are oceans of liquid water under the surface of Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, but also whether they are habitable. This radar needs a 16 meter antenna to work properly. Problems arose with the deployment of this antenna in space. According to the ESA, all 10 other instruments are stuck in the antenna mounting bracket while operating normally, and one of the mounts is preventing the antenna from fully extending.
By the way, this is not the first time that the device flying to Jupiter has problems with the antenna. From 1995 to 2003, the gas giant and its moons were studied by the Galileo spacecraft. However, it couldn’t fully open its antenna to transmit data to Earth, so the signals came in much slower.
ESA said it will take about 2 more months to get all JUICE instruments up and running so engineers on the ground can fix the antenna issue.
According to the ESA report, scientists have several options for solving this problem, and they have no doubt that the device can fully deploy it in space.
To put the antenna in the correct position, the scientists say JUICE thrusters can be fired to send the spacecraft into a series of rotations. This will loosen the mount and the antenna will open fully.
As already written FocusThe NASA rover has received a gift from Earth and will now be a child prodigy and a part-time racer. The 10-year-old Curiosity rover has received a major software update that will allow it to operate on Mars for many more years.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.