BRB, goin' to Jupiter

[nanila]

The European Space Agency has selected its first L-class mission, the JUICE mission to Jupiter and its Galilean moons.

Here's a quote from the article (from my boss):

"People probably don't realise that habitable zones don't necessarily need to be close to a star - in our case, close to the Sun," explained Prof. Michele Dougherty, a Juice science team member from Imperial College London, UK.

"There are four conditions required for life to form. You need water; you need an energy source - so the ice can become liquid; you need the right chemistry - nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen; and the fourth thing you need is stability - a length of time that allows life to form.

"The great thing about the icy moons in the Jupiter system is that we think those four conditions might exist there; and Juice will tell us if that is the case," she told BBC News.

It's scheduled to launch in 2022. Fingers crossed that I will be working on it then, too!

Comments

[yvi]

Oh, awesome! Thanks for the info.

[nanila]

You're welcome!

There's a press release from Imperial about it here, and you can hear my boss speak about it here.

[steorra]

I'm excited about this, although disappointed it's not doing more at Europa than it is. But, Ganymede deserves investigation too.

I'm glad it won. Now for the wait...

[nanila]

It's a shame the other orbiter got axed by NASA. But hopefully JUICE will be able to glean a good deal from those two close flybys.

Ah yes, the wait. Outer planetary observational science: not a game for the impatient. If I am kept working on JUICE through the lifetime of the mission, it will see me through almost to retirement age. Terrifying thought!

[xylie]

Excellent! Hope you get to see it launch.

[nanila]

Hurrah! Oh, me too. That would be fantastic.