ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was developed, constructed and tested at different sites across Europe. This ninth episode in ‘The making of Juice’ series takes the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry and planetary science community involved in the mission.

This episode includes footage showing the application of the Galileo plaque onto the spacecraft at Airbus Toulouse facilities on 20 January 2023. It dives into the history of Galileo’s seminal observations of Jupiter and the discovery of its large moons – the inspiration behind the Juice mission. It presents Galileo’s original drawings, together with the process of how the inscriptions were lasered into a piece of multi-layer insulation that is now attached to the spacecraft.

Interviewees featured in this episode are (in order of appearance): Giuseppe Sarri, ESA Juice Project Manager; Luciano Iess, Principal Investigator of the 3GM experiment onboard Juice; Angelo Antonelli, Director of the Astronomical and Copernican Museum; Sophie Weixler, responsible for the Airbus Laser Facility; and Cyril Cavel, Airbus Juice Project Manager.

November 2023 update: This episode is part of a film project that culminated in a two-hour documentary film released in November 2023.

Access the other episodes of ‘The making of Juice’

Credit: ESA/Lightcurve Films, original music by William Zeitler