Working on the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), May 2021. A number of activities have taken place ahead of environmental testing, which will see Juice spend several weeks inside the Large Space Simulator. This included the application of multi-layered insulation, a deployment test of the medium-gain antenna, and other preparatory activities.
Once in the Jovian system 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.