The European Space Agency has launched the latest spacecraft ‘Joss’ to explore Jupiter and its moons. Photo: Courtesy of ESA
Brussels: The European Space Union has launched its latest mission to probe Jupiter’s moons away from Earth, which will explore Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, after eight years.
The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (Jos) is an advanced robotic spacecraft. It has been launched from the French Guiana Space Center and has sent several signals to Earth indicating the accuracy and function of all its instruments 27 and 36 minutes after leaving Earth.
In August 2024, it will make a gravity flyby by the Earth, the (Terrestrial) Moon, and the planet Venus, respectively, and accelerate to Jupiter in 2031, after which it will fly past Jupiter’s other moons, Callisto, Will also fly-by from Europa, Jenny Med etc. Eventually it will reach Jenny Mead’s orbit and begin orbiting.
The state-of-the-art Jose spacecraft will explore Jupiter and its three largest moons with ten critical instruments installed. These include spectrometers, advanced cameras, laser sensors and magnetometers, etc. will increase our knowledge about this great world.
Like all missions, it will look for water on Jupiter’s moons and add to our knowledge.
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