Juice uses Earth’s gravity to bend its route toward Jupiter
Europe’s Juice spacecraft completed an Earth flyby, using the planet’s gravity to turn toward Jupiter and gain speed. It passed about 8,640 kilometers above the Indian Ocean while mission teams monitored the encounter. Science instruments also observed Earth and the Moon during the pass. Those measurements still need analysis; the confirmed result is a course correction on a journey scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2031.
Science··Night
Earth’s gravity changed Juice’s course
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, completed its Earth flyby on September 28. It passed roughly 8,640 kilometers above the Indian Ocean. Earth’s gravity turned its course by about 20 degrees and added around 3.5 kilometers per second to its speed. Space.com also reported the completed pass and course change on the journey to Jupiter. The confirmed development is a spacecraft maneuver, rather than a new finding about Jupiter’s moons.[1], [2]
Controllers needed one small correction
The flight team had reserved six opportunities for course corrections before the encounter, but needed only one small maneuver. Controllers monitored the approach closely and will keep tracking the spacecraft along its new course after the pass. Juice has used other planetary and lunar flybys earlier in its journey. This Earth encounter forms another part of the mission’s sequence of gravity-assisted route changes.[1]
Instrument data await analysis
The pass also gave the mission’s 10 science instruments a chance to observe Earth and the Moon in a familiar setting. Juice spent several days in Earth’s magnetic tail while instruments recorded magnetic fields and charged particles. Mission teams are still examining the measurements, including images from the JANUS camera, before releasing them. ESA has not presented them as findings about Jupiter’s moons. The current mission plan includes another Earth flyby in 2029 and arrival at Jupiter in 2031.[1]
