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Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

Missions

JUICE

JUICE – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – is led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is planned to launch in 2022. JUICE will take 7.5 years to journey through the Solar System before arriving at Jupiter in 2029. The space-craft will spend three and a half years at  Jupiter examining the giant planet and its environment, in particular investigating the Galilean moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, which are thought to conceal oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts. To explore the atmosphere, magnetosphere and tenuous rings of Jupiter, as well as to characterize its three ocean-bearing moons, JUICE will sport ten state-of-the-art instruments. These include cameras, spectrometers, a sub-millimeter sounder, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, a radio-science experiment, and sensors to monitor the magnetic fields and particle environment, as well as a radio interferometry experiment. Here at LASP we are a part of the JUICE UVS team and are involved with preparations and developing tools for future data analysis.

Juno

Juno

Launching from Earth in 2011, the Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter in 2016 to study the giant planet from an elliptical, polar orbit. Juno will repeatedly dive between the planet and its intense belts of charged particle radiation, coming only 5,000 kilometers (about 3,000 miles) from the cloud tops at closest approach. Juno’s primary goal is to improve our understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution. The spacecraft will spend a year investigating the planet’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere. Juno’s study of Jupiter will help us to understand the history of our own solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond.

New Horizons

New Horizons

The New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission, launched in January 2006 and due to fly past Pluto on July 14, 2015, will help us to understand the icy worlds at the edge of our solar system. The mission will then visit one or more Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Pluto. On the way to Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Jupiter in 2007, gaining a gravity assist and traveling down Jupiter’s extensive magnetotail for 3 months.

Cassini

Cassini

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint NASA/ESA mission with the Cassini spacecraft having been in orbit around Saturn since July 1, 2004. The Huygens probe entered the atmosphere of Titan on Jan. 14, 2005. To get to Saturn, Cassini flew past Jupiter

Galileo

Galileo

The Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter from Dec. 7, 1996 until Sep. 21, 2003. A probe was sent into Jupiter’s atmosphere in late 1996. Due to malfunction of the main antenna, communication to Earth was greatly reduced, limiting the data delivered to the ground.

Voyager

Voyager

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter March 1979 and July 1979 respectively. Both then flew on past Saturn and V2 continued to Uranus and Neptune.

50 years of Exploring Jupiter –  video of whole session –  Bagenal slides on Jupiter

The short version: Leila Gabasova sketch (click on image).