Installation of connections and harness for the radio frequency link system that will allow communication with the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft while in the thermal chamber, and to test the communications system during thermal-vacuum test. The spacecraft will spend several weeks inside the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC under vacuum, experiencing a range of extreme temperatures to prepare for its journey in space.
Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant exoplanets now known to orbit other stars.