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spacetimewithstuartgary · 2 months

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Euclid's 'twin' arrives at ESA mission control

ESA's Euclid observatory has begun to survey billions of galaxies on a quest to uncover the secrets of dark matter and dark energy from its vantage point 1.5 million km from Earth.

The spacecraft is operated by teams at ESA's ESOC mission control, who send commands, download data and status information and ensure the health and functioning of the satellite.

These teams rely on a one-of-a-kind test bench known as an "avionics model" to diagnose and solve issues experienced by the Euclid flight model in space and to test procedures and software on the ground before they are executed on the real spacecraft.

An avionics model is an electrically faithful replication of the satellite's avionics—the devices, hardware and software on a spacecraft that enable it to be controlled from the ground, including propulsion, attitude control, communication, computers and navigation, and its scientific instruments.

The Euclid Avionics Model began its life at the spacecraft's manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space in Torino, Italy, and was recently delivered to ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.

"The Euclid flight control team now has direct access to a fully functional replica of the inner workings of the satellite," says spacecraft operations manager Micha Schmidt.

"The avionics model has already proven very important to the mission. It was used extensively during Euclid's demanding commissioning phase to validate the safety and effectiveness of critical updates to the Fine Guidance Sensor and other on-board software on the ground before we uploaded them to the spacecraft."

The flight control team is currently undergoing training on the use and maintenance of the Euclid model, which will remain at ESOC for the rest of the mission.

IMAGE....The Euclid Avionics Model set up inside its dedicated room at ESA's ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Credit: European Space Agency

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #esa #astrophysics

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postsofbabel · 8 months

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#posts of babel

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girlbob-boypants · 2 years

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Wish I could draw so I could introduce you all to my esocs properly as they exist in my head but alas

#girlbob.txt #im just a silly little guy who does headshots sometimes

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thehorrorreturns · 22 hours

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E Society Podcast - Episode #309: The ESP Circle

This episode 309

Today we'll be talking about TV including What Jennifer Did, The Circle, The Jinx part 2, X-Men 97 and An American Bombing: Road to April 19th.

Movies including: Ricky Stanicky, Road House and You'll Never Find Me.

And as always, The week in Sports, the week in Funko and collecting, Weekly Star Wars moment, and our weekly random movie and song recommendations.

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#SK8ERNezPodcastNetwork #ESociety #ESP #Movies #TVShows #Comics #Toys #Collectibles #Funko #StarWars #Music #Entertainment #PopCulture #Podcast #Podcasting #PodLife #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNation

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jcmarchi · 5 months

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Life Beyond the Leak for ESA’s CryoSat - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/life-beyond-the-leak-for-esas-cryosat-technology-org/

Life Beyond the Leak for ESA’s CryoSat - Technology Org

ESA’s CryoSat satellite swapped to its back-up propulsion system after a fuel leak threatened to bring the mission to an end in 2025.

Glacier ice loss visualised as a cube. Image credit: ESA/Planetary Visions

The swap can potentially extend the satellite’s life by as much as 5 to 10 years. But the back-up thrusters had never been used before.

If something had damaged them during CryoSat’s 13 years in orbit, there was a small chance that the mission would come to an immediate end after the switch.

What is CryoSat?

CryoSat is ESA’s satellite dedicated to measuring the thickness of polar sea ice and monitoring changes in the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica.

The mission was designed to last roughly 5 years. It has now spent over 13 years in orbit.

“Since 2010, CryoSat has used its Synthetic Radar Altimeter (SAR) to monitor land and sea ice everywhere on Earth to help scientists demonstrate the important role ice plays in regulating climate and being affected by global warming,” says Tommaso Parrinello, CryoSat Mission Manager.

ESA’s CryoSat mission provides data to determine the precise rate of change in the thickness of the polar ice sheets and floating sea ice. It is capable of detecting changes as little as 1 cm per year. The information from CryoSat is leading to a better understanding of how the volume of ice on Earth is changing and, in turn, a better appreciation of how ice and climate are linked. Image credit: ESA – P. Carril

“CryoSat is a gift that keeps on giving. Its thirteen-year climate record of global ice and sea levels is unparalleled, and long may it continue.”

Recent mission highlights include the first ever year-round map of Arctic Sea ice and our most accurate estimates yet for the ice volume lost by Earth’s glaciers and polar ice sheets. These data are critical to inform climate reports and policy makers.

CryoSat’s data are also shaping the design of new ice-monitoring satellites, such as the Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter (CRISTAL) mission.

What was the problem with CryoSat?

CryoSat scale model inside the control room. Image credit: ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

In order to make ultra-precise measurements of Earth or the cosmos, most satellites conduct regular manoeuvres to keep them in the perfect orbit.

CryoSat uses compressed nitrogen to manoeuvre in space. The gas is stored at high pressure in a fuel tank and carried through a series of pipes and valves to thrusters. The thrusters release the gas out into space, pushing or turning the satellite in any commanded direction.

Fuel consumption was not expected to be a limiting factor for CryoSat. But in 2016, the operators flying CryoSat at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, noticed that the spacecraft was using up its 37 kilograms of compressed nitrogen much faster than expected.

As of November 2023, CryoSat has 13 kg of fuel left – 13 kg less fuel left than it should have based on the use of the thrusters for orbit maintenance manoeuvres and attitude control.

When the fuel tank drops below 5 kg, the satellite will no longer be able to reliably control the direction it points or maintain its orbit.

What caused the leak?

CryoSat’s nitrogen propellant is stored in a fuel tank at high pressure. A pressure regulator converts the high-pressure air into much lower pressure for use by the thrusters.

Together with the experts at the satellite’s manufacturer, Airbus, the ESA team has pinpointed the location of the leak to one of CryoSat’s smaller attitude thrusters.

At first, the leak rate was small, but it increased over the first few years and has reached a stable rate that would still bring the CryoSat mission to the end in 2025.

One explanation for this could be that a small crack appeared somewhere and grew to a certain size before stopping. But it is difficult to diagnose this kind of problem from the ground, and it’s impossible to know for sure.

How did you save the satellite?

CryoSat has a secondary, back-up propulsion system connected to its fuel tank.

On 21 November, at 10:45 CET, operators at ESOC initiated the swap to this back-up system, as CryoSat passed over Svalbard station on Spitzbergen Island and ESA’s Kiruna station in Sweden.

Kiruna station. Image credit: ESA

First, leaving the primary thrusters connected, they opened the main valve to the back-up propulsion system for the first time in CryoSat’s 13 years in space.

At ESOC in Germany, CryoSat’s spacecraft operations engineers and the team from Airbus monitored screens as the pressure rose – both inside the back-up propulsion system on CryoSat and in the control room on Earth.

The pressure in the back-up system stabilised – indicating that it was not suffering from any major issues of its own – and the satellite’s onboard computer was instructed to use the back-up thrusters instead of the primary thrusters that it has used since launch.

Just before CryoSat reached the end of its communication window with the stations in the Arctic, the main valve to the primary thrusters was closed to stop the flow of gas through the leak.

And then… silence.

CryoSat was left alone as it flew southbound over Africa, connected to and using its back-up thrusters for the first time.

CryoSat team monitors the spacecraft during propulsion system swap. ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

“CryoSat’s backup system is robust and was likely to work as intended,” says CryoSat Spacecraft Operations Manager, Jens Lerch. “And if there was a problem with it, during the switch or at any point in the future, the satellite is capable of swapping back to its primary system autonomously.”

“But we couldn’t know for sure. The back-up hasn’t been needed during the 13 years that CryoSat has been in space. During this time, it could have suffered a similar leak or been damaged by something like a micrometeoroid – and we had no way to test it previously without exposing us to the same risks we faced today.”

Thankfully, 25 minutes later, CryoSat rose above the horizon of the Troll ground station in Antarctica fully functional.

The next day, 22 November, the flight control team at ESA conducted an ‘orbital control manoeuvre’ to test the two larger thrusters in the back-up system.

As no issues were found during or after the manoeuvre, CryoSat’s back-up thrusters are now officially commissioned, and the satellite is capable of continuing scientific activities to the end of the decade and possibly beyond.

Hold on, the leak was detected in 2016. Why wait until now to do something?

At any time since launch, CryoSat has had the ability to swap to its back-up propulsion system if its onboard computer detected a sudden major issue with the primary system.

But reacting to a slow leak represents a more difficult decision than reacting to a fast leak that must be handled immediately or even autonomously by the satellite.

CryoSat has gathered seven years of invaluable ice mapping data between 2016 and 2023. If operators had switched to the back-up thrusters immediately, and a series of very unlikely problems had occurred during the reconfiguration, these data would never have existed.

But the longer they waited, the more fuel leaked out into space, and the fewer additional years they could gain by making the swap.

21 November 2023 was selected as the day that balanced these two factors.

What next?

The swap to CryoSat’s back-up thrusters was a success. But we don’t yet know exactly how much this could extend the mission.

CRISTAL. Image credit: Airbus

Only by monitoring the fuel reserves over the next few days and weeks will the CryoSat team know if there are any smaller leaks or issues in the back-up system.

In the best case, this operation could prove invaluable for humankind’s polar ice records.

CryoSat has been a key part of what some have called the “golden age of satellite altimetry”. Amongst an impressive fleet, its radar altimeter is unique in being able to monitor ice and water levels in every part of the globe.

CRISTAL, CryoSat’s natural successor, is not due to launch for another few years. The extension of CryoSat’s observations would bridge the gap and maintain the longest unbroken record of changing global ice we’ve ever had.

Meanwhile, a novel collaboration with NASA’s ice monitoring satellite ICESat-2, which combines the orbits of ICESat-2 and CryoSat to map snow on ice – a significant cause of uncertainty in our estimates – could improve the accuracy of satellite measurements of ice volume yet further.

The findings will be directly applicable also to future ice missions, including CRISTAL.

With consistent improvements to CryoSat’s data products, which cover not just sea ice and land ice but polar oceans, coastal oceans and inland waters, ESA’s ice mission still has plenty to offer.

Source: European Space Agency

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spacenutspod · 5 months

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JUICE Prepares for a first of its kind double-flyby next year. A Jupiter-bound mission adjusted its course last week…for a rendezvous with Earth. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Jupiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE) fired its thrusters for 43 minutes on Friday, November 17th. This sets the mission up for a first of its kind double-flyby next year on August 23rd, as it passes the Moon and then the Earth to pick up momentum. The mission is the European Agency’s first-ever mission to Jupiter. ESA has some experience with outer solar system exploration with the Huygens Titan explorer and lander, which hitched a ride to the Saturn system with NASA’s Cassini mission. A Heavy Mover Weighing in a 6,070 kilograms (spacecraft dry mass, plus fuel and payload adapter), JUICE is one of the heaviest ever planetary exploration missions mass-wise. The course correction was also a crucial test of the main engine in deep space. Now, engineers will assess if JUICE needs another smaller burn in May to tweak its trajectory prior to the Earth-Moon flyby. A simulation of Juice’s flyby past the Earth and the Moon next August. Credit: ESOC “This manoeuvre used up roughly 363 kilograms of fuel—or almost exactly 10% of the 3,650 kilograms of fuel that JUICE launched with,” says Julia Schwartz (ESOC Mission Flight Dynamics Engineer) in a recent press release. “It was the first part of a two-part manoeuvre to put JUICE on the correct trajectory for next summer’s encounter with Earth and the Moon. This first burn did 95% of the work, changing JUICE’s velocity by almost 200 m/s.” JUICE used a thruster burn in the past, to help free its stuck RIME (Radar for Icy Moons Exploration) antenna. JUICE’s stuck RIME antenna, with Earth in the background. Why Flybys Planetary flybys are a crucial and efficient way to get spacecraft to their destinations. Instead of carrying the mass of extra fuel, a mission can use the gravity of a massive world to simply gain momentum and sling it towards its target. The August 2024 flyby comes 16 months after its April 14th, 2023 launch from the Guiana Space Center. Other missions including Cassini and Juno have used an Earth flyby to pickup speed in the past, but the added bonus of a close inbound lunar flyby is a first. Expect to see some great images from the spacecraft of the Earth-Moon pair, as researchers will likely take the opportunity to use the flyby to calibrate and test instruments aboard the spacecraft. JUICE will first pass the Moon, and will then pass the Earth 36 hours later. On Earth flyby, the mission will pass close enough that well-placed observers using binoculars or a telescope may see the mission as a fast-moving ‘star’. This first-of-its-kind maneuver is known as a ‘LEGA’ or Lunar-Earth Gravitational Assist. Osiris-REX flies past Earth. Credit Gianluca Masi/Virtual Telescope Project The Timeline to Jove If this burn was accurate enough, it could put gravity in the driver’s seat. JUICE won’t need to use its engines again until it arrives at Jupiter in 2031. After 2024, JUICE will make a flyby past Venus in 2025, and then two more flybys past the Earth in 2026 and 2029. A timeline of JUICE’s journey to Jupiter. Credit: ESA. Arrival at Jupiter and the Final Fate of JUICE Then comes the biggest test of the spacecraft’s main engine. In 2031, just 13 hours after the spacecraft’s first pass near Ganymede and arrival in the Jovian system, JUICE will need to change velocity by a full one kilometer a second—five times bigger than this month’s change. JUICE’s objective is to explore the icy moons of Jupiter: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. These moons have only been briefly seen up close during the Voyagers, Cassini, Juno and New Horizons flybys. The enigmatic moons may harbor extensive subsurface oceans, and—just perhaps—chemistry conducive to life. JUICE carries a suite of instruments to probe the moons including the RIME radar sounder, the first ever such instrument to fly to Jupiter. RIME will be able to provide depth and thickness analysis for the ice and oceans of the Jovian moons. New Horizons spies Io and Europa during its Jupiter flyby. Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI Powering JUICE at Jupiter is also challenging, as the Sun is much fainter in the outer solar system. Like NASA’s Juno, JUICE is also solar-powered. The mission has two huge, folding cruciform-shaped solar panels. These will provide 50 watts of energy per square meter at Jupiter. Power efficiency at Jupiter’s distance from the Sun drops to just 3% of that received near the Earth. The mission will make 35 flybys past the three moons, before settling into its final orbit around Ganymede in late 2034. JUICE will be joined by NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission, launching late next year and arriving at Jupiter just before JUICE in 2030. Watch for JUICE, briefly visiting our homeworld next summer. Catch ESA’s JUICE documentary dropping on YouTube on November 23rd: The post ESA’s Juice Mission is Approaching Earth. Why Has it Come Home Before Visiting Jupiter? appeared first on Universe Today.

#space #astronomy #news #science

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oe24at · 11 months

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ESOC 2023: Neue Studie zeigt: KI-Tool übertrifft menschliche Notrufmitarbeiter bei der Erkennung von Schlaganfällen

München, Deutschland (ots /PRNewswire) – Forscher aus Dänemark haben ein neues System mit künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) entwickelt, um die Zahl der Schlaganfälle zu reduzieren, die von menschlichen Rettungskräften unentdeckt bleiben. Das System übertraf die Notrufzentralen bei der Erkennung von Schlaganfällen bei beiden Geschlechtern und in allen untersuchten Altersgruppen, was darauf hindeutet,…

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jinglebellringer · 1 year

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ESOC 2023 , 24-26 May 2023 Munich, Germany = The 9th European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) 1 2 3 4 5 ...

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astronomyforastrologers · 1 year

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ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 14:14 CEST on 14 April. The successful launch marks the beginning of an ambitious voyage to uncover the secrets of the ocean worlds around giant planet Jupiter.

Following launch and separation from the rocket, ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, confirmed acquisition of signal via the New Norcia ground station in Australia at 15:04 CEST. The spacecraft’s vast 27 m long solar arrays unfurled into their distinctive cross shapes at 15:33 CEST, ensuring Juice can travel to the outer Solar System. The completion of this critical operation marked the launch a success.

“ESA, with its international partners, is on its way to Jupiter,” says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. “Juice’s spectacular launch carries with it the vision and ambition of those who conceived the mission decades ago, the skill and passion of everyone who has built this incredible machine, the drive of our flight operations team, and the curiosity of the global science community. Together, we will keep pushing the boundaries of science and exploration in order to answer humankind’s biggest questions.”

“It is thanks to the leadership of ESA and the effort and commitment of hundreds of European industries and scientific institutions that the Juice mission has become a reality,” says Giuseppe Sarri, ESA’ s Juice Project Manager. “Together with our partners NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Israel Space Agency, who have also contributed hardware or scientific instrumentation, we have reached this much-awaited launch milestone.”

From Galileo to Juice

Jupiter, shining brightly in the night sky, has sparked fascination ever since our ancient ancestors first looked up. Astronomer Galileo Galilei brought Jupiter into focus in 1610, observing the planet through a telescope for the first time and discovering its orbiting moons. His observations overturned the long-held idea that everything in the heavens revolved around Earth. Centuries later, Juice – which carries a commemorative plaque in honour of Galileo’s discoveries – will see Jupiter and its moons in a way that Galileo couldn’t even have dreamt of.

Thanks to the legacy of previous Jupiter missions we know that three of the planet’s largest moons – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – hold quantities of water buried under their surfaces in volumes far greater than in Earth’s oceans. These planet-sized moons offer us tantalising hints that conditions for life could exist other than here on our ‘pale blue dot’, and Juice is equipped to bring us one step closer to answering this alluring question.

“Over 400 years ago, Galileo discovered moons orbiting Jupiter – news that shocked the renaissance world and revolutionised humankind’s understanding of our place in the Universe,” says Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science. “Today, we have sent a suite of ground-breaking science instruments on a journey to those moons that will give us an exquisite close-up view that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Juice carries the dreams of anyone who’s ever gazed up at Jupiter shining brightly in the night sky and wondered about our origins.

“The treasure trove of data that ESA Juice will provide will enable the science community worldwide to dig in and uncover the mysteries of the jovian system, explore the nature and habitability of oceans on other worlds and answer questions yet unasked by future generations of scientists.”

Juice is the last ESA space science mission to launch on an Ariane 5, in a long legacy dating back to 1999 with the launch of XMM-Newton, which is still in operation today, and most recently, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in 2021.

“What a magnificent demonstration of Europe’s capacity to dream big and deliver results to match,” says Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s Director of Space Transportation. “We can all be proud of Ariane 5 for making possible missions like Juice and setting such a high standard for our new generation of launch systems.”

Over the next two-and-half weeks Juice will deploy its various antennas and instrument booms, including the 16 m long radar antenna, 10.6 m long magnetometer boom, and various other instruments that will study the environment of Jupiter and the subsurface of the icy moons.

An eight-year cruise with four gravity-assist flybys at Earth and Venus will slingshot the spacecraft towards the outer Solar System. The first flyby in April 2024 will mark a space exploration first: Juice will perform a lunar-Earth gravity-assist – a flyby of the Moon followed 1.5 days later by one of Earth.

ESA’s spacecraft operators, technology engineers and mission analysts have worked exhaustively to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead on this adventurous mission.

Shields will protect the spacecraft’s sensitive electronics from the monstrous levels of radiation in the Jupiter system. Multi-layered insulation will keep internal temperatures stable while externally they may reach more than 250ºC during the Venus flyby and -230ºC at Jupiter.

“Hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth and powered by just a sliver of sunlight, we will guide Juice through 35 flybys of Jupiter’s ocean moons in order to gather the data needed to bring scientists closer than ever to these compelling destinations,” says Ignacio Tanco, ESA’s Juice spacecraft operations manager.

#jupiter

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zzzzzzzzz-a-13-zzzzzzzzz · 1 year

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Estados miembros

Países miembros de la ESA Estados del ECS Acuerdo de Cooperación firmado

ESOC, Darmstadt, Hessen, Alemania

La ESA está formada por veintidós estados miembros: Alemania, Austria, Bélgica, Chequia, Dinamarca, España, Estonia, Finlandia, Francia, Grecia, Hungría, Irlanda, Italia, Luxemburgo, Noruega, Países Bajos, Polonia,8 Portugal, Reino Unido, Rumanía, Suecia y Suiza. En los próximos años es probable que muchos de los países que entraron en la Unión Europea tras la ampliación de 2004 pasen a formar parte también de la ESA.[cita requerida]

ESA

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 5 months

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Juice burns hard toward first-ever Earth–moon flyby

On 17 November 2023, ESA's Juice spacecraft carried out one of the largest and most important maneuvers in its eight-year journey to Jupiter.

Using its main engine, Juice changed its orbit around the sun to put itself on the correct trajectory for next summer's Earth–moon double gravity assist—the first of its kind.

The maneuver lasted 43 minutes and burned almost 10% of the spacecraft's entire fuel reserve. It's the first part of a two-part maneuver that could mark the final time that Juice's main engine is used until its arrival in the Jupiter system in 2031.

Mission to Jupiter picks up speed

ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) launched from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana on 14 April 2023.

It's on a mission to make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large, ocean-bearing moons—Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

But Juice won't begin its investigations into the nature and possible habitability of the Jupiter system until its arrival in 2031.

Why does it take so long to get to Jupiter? Well, the short answer is that it has less to do with the distance between Earth and Jupiter and more to do with fighting the sun's massive gravitational pull as you venture outwards through the solar system.

Missions to the giant gas planets, such as Juice, Europa Clipper, Galileo or Juno, would be little more than giant fuel tanks if they had to store all the energy needed to overcome the sun's gravity by themselves.

Instead, they make use of "gravity-assist" or "flyby" maneuvers to gain energy by swinging through the strong gravitational fields of various planets on the way.

Shooting for the moon

Juice's first boost will come from its home planet, when it returns to Earth in August 2024, more than one year after launch.

In fact, in a first-of-its-kind flyby, Juice will first pass by the moon to give it an extra kick and make the flyby of Earth that takes place 1.5 days later even more effective.

But even with this extra boost, to get the most out of the gravity assist, Juice has to arrive at the Earth–moon system at precisely the correct time, at the correct speed and traveling in the correct direction.

That's where today's maneuver comes in.

On 17 November, at 16:10 (CET), Juice's main engine performed a burn that lasted roughly 43 minutes.

"This maneuver used up roughly 363 kg of fuel—or almost exactly 10% of the 3650kg of fuel that Juice launched with," says Julia Schwartz, Flight Dynamics Engineer at ESA's ESOC mission control center in Germany.

This is Juice's largest maneuver so far. Until today, Juice had only used roughly 10 kg of fuel—mostly as part of a series of short burns used to help free its stuck RIME antenna.

"It was the first part of a two-part maneuver to put Juice on the correct trajectory for next summer's encounter with Earth and the moon. This first burn did 95% of the work, changing Juice's velocity by almost 200 m/s," adds Julia.

"Juice is one of the heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched, with a total mass of around 6,000 kg, so it took a lot of force and a lot of fuel to achieve this."

"In a few weeks, once we've analyzed Juice's new orbit, we will carry out the second, much smaller second part of the maneuver. Splitting the maneuver into two parts allows us to use the second firing of the engine to iron out any inaccuracies of the first."

An additional, much smaller maneuver using Juice's smaller thrusters may be carried out in May 2024 for the final fine-tuning during the approach to Earth.

Last use of the main engine until 2031

For a mission on an eight-year journey, burning 10% of your fuel reserve in just 43 minutes may seem crazy. But investing all that fuel now will pay off for years to come.

"If all goes well with both parts of this maneuver, we likely won't need to use the main engine again until we enter orbit around Jupiter in 2031," says Ignacio Tanco, Juice Spacecraft Operations Manager. "For small trajectory corrections between now and then, we will use Juice's smaller thrusters."

But that doesn't mean nothing interesting will happen between now and Juice's arrival at Jupiter. Quite the opposite, the journey is interesting because it allows Juice to get all the way to Jupiter without firing its main engine again, reducing the amount of fuel the spacecraft needs and allowing it to be packed full of scientific instruments.

After the Earth–moon double flyby of 2024 (known as a Lunar–Earth Gravity Assist; LEGA), Juice will first make one flyby of Venus in 2025 and two further flybys of Earth in 2026 and 2029 (both without the additional boost from the moon).

"Today's maneuver will ensure Juice arrives at the Earth–moon system at the right time next year for the double flyby," adds Ignacio.

"And, thanks to the clever trajectory designed by our Mission Analysis team, that flyby will line it up almost perfectly for all of the others, without us having to fire the main engine again."

With each flyby, the spacecraft will gain more energy than could be achieved by burning a reasonable amount of fuel—energy that will help it climb towards Jupiter against the pull of the sun's gravity.

"It was very important that we carry out this maneuver today. Otherwise, the cost—how much fuel we would need to burn to reach the new orbit we need—would begin to shoot up dramatically," says Ignacio.

Today's burn also gave the teams the opportunity to make sure Juice's main engine is working correctly. It was first tested shortly after launch, but it until today, it hadn't been used for such a big maneuver out in deep space.

"There were some things that we couldn't test before now. For example, we only had an estimate for how the liquid in the fuel tanks will move around as the spacecraft accelerates. This is very important to know precisely, because if the fuel behaves different to how we expect, it could cause the spacecraft to drift off course during the burn. So, we are monitoring closely."

Next stop: Jupiter

The next time that Juice will absolutely have to fire its main engine is during its Jupiter orbit insertion in 2031. This is the single most important maneuver that the teams at ESOC will oversee.

Just 13 hours after swinging by Ganymede and entering the Jupiter system, the spacecraft will need to slow down by about 1 km/s—five times the change in velocity achieved today.

"That makes today's maneuver also an important test for Jupiter insertion—the sooner we know if we have any issues with the main engine, the better," says Ignacio.

Once in orbit around the gas giant, Juice can begin its exploration of the Jupiter system. Teams at ESOC will steer Juice through a series of 35 flybys of the ocean moons. Where once flybys were a yearly occurrence, at Jupiter they will be carried out as often as once every two weeks.

These close-ups of the icy moons will allow the spacecraft and scientists on Earth to gather the data needed to better understand these mysterious alien worlds.

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