Satellite
ESA is overseeing development of the JUICE spacecraft, which relies on proven and robust design strategies. It is being built by Airbus Defence & Space.
JUICE will be built to withstand the radiation environment around Jupiter. It will consist of a solar-powered orbiter with three instrument packages designed to achieve the mission’s science goals: remote sensing, in-situ measurements of fields and particles, and geophysical measurements.
Mass breakdown:
- Mass on launch (May 2022): 5,682 kg
- Launch vehicle adapter, 82 kg
- Flight system: 2,515 kg
- Propellant: 3,085 kg
Subsystems:
Telecommunications
- 2.5-m high-gain antenna (HGA)
- X band for telecommands, X and K, bands for telemetry
Attitude control
- Three-axis stabilized with thrusters and reaction wheels
Power
- 90-sq.m solar array
- Lithium ion battery for peak and eclipse power management
Propulsion
- Bi-propellant
- 400-N main engine, 8 22-N nozzles and 12 10-N nozzles
The model payload is composed of 10 instruments, with a total mass of 276 kg (see Instruments section for details of instruments to which France is contributing)
- JANUS narrow-angle visible camera
- MAJIS (Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer) visible and IR imaging spectrometer (French prime contractor)
- UVS (UV imaging Spectrograph) (French contribution)
- SWI (Sub-millimetre Wave Instrument) (French contribution)
- GALA (GAnymede Laser Altimeter)
- RIME (Radar for Icy Moons Exploration) ice-penetrating radar (French contribution)
- J-MAG magnetometers
- PEP (Particle Environment Package) particle and plasma instrument - Ion-neutral mass spectrometer (French contribution)
- RPWI (Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation) (French contribution)
- 3GM (Gravity & Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons) radio science instrument