JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE)
The European Space Agency (ESA) mission to the Jupiter system
Objective: to study the icy moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto
Creotech’s role: electronics for the RPWI and SWI instruments, probe power supply tests
Polish electronics on their way to the largest planet in the Solar System
JUICE is one of the European Space Agency’s most ambitious scientific missions. Weighing around 5 tonnes, the probe was launched in April 2023 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket and is on its way to Jupiter, where it will arrive in 2031. There, during 35 flybys, it will study the planet’s three icy moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. Beneath their surfaces, there may be liquid water, and thus potentially conditions conducive to life. In 2034, JUICE will become the first probe in history to enter the orbit of a moon other than Earth’s.
There are ten scientific instruments on board. Creotech Instruments, in collaboration with the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, manufactured the electronics for two of them: the computer for the RPWI instrument, which studies Jupiter’s radio emissions and plasma environment, and the power supply system for the SWI instrument, which analyses the planet’s atmosphere and the surfaces of its moons. Together with Airbus Defence and Space CRISA, we also tested the qualification and flight models of the power subsystems and the batteries for the entire probe.
Deep-space missions place exceptional demands on electronic equipment. A signal from the vicinity of Jupiter takes nearly an hour to reach Earth, so the systems must operate autonomously and reliably for years on end, in a vacuum, amidst intense radiation and extreme temperatures.