ESA Targets Jupiter's Icy Moons with Juice Mission

摘要

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced May 2 that Europe's next large science mission will launch in 2022 on a decade-long mission to explore Jupiter's icy moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was chosen over two other candidates: the New Gravitational Wave Observatory and the Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics, ESA said in a press release. After its launch from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, the Juice craft will arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and spend at least three years making detailed observations of its moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.