NASA Selects Science Instrument and Hardware for European Mission to Jupiter

Feb. 21, 2013

Dwayne C. Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 13-060

NASA SELECTS SCIENCE INSTRUMENT AND HARDWARE FOR EUROPEAN MISSION TO JUPITER

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected key contributions to a 2022 European
Space Agency (ESA) mission that will study Jupiter and three of its
largest moons in unprecedented detail. The moons are thought to
harbor vast water oceans beneath their icy surfaces.

NASA's contribution will consist of one U.S.-led science instrument
and hardware for two European instruments to fly on ESA's Jupiter Icy
Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission. JUICE will carry 11 experiments
developed by scientific teams from 15 European countries, the United
States and Japan.

The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for three years and travel past its
moons Callisto and Europa multiple times, then orbit Ganymede, a moon
larger than the planet Mercury. JUICE will conduct the first thorough
exploration of Jupiter since NASA's Galileo mission from 1989-2003.
By studying the Jupiter system, JUICE will look to learn more about
the formation and evolution of potentially habitable worlds in our
solar system and beyond.

"NASA is thrilled to collaborate with ESA on this exciting mission to
explore Jupiter and its icy moons," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's
associate administrator for Science in Washington. "Working together
with ESA and our other international partners is key to enabling
future scientific progress in our quest to understand the cosmos."

The solar-powered spacecraft will carry cameras and spectrometers, a
laser altimeter and an ice-penetrating radar. The mission also will
carry a magnetometer, plasma and particle monitors, and radio science
hardware. The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the Jupiter system
in 2030.

"The selection of JUICE's instruments is a key milestone in ESA's
flagship mission to the outer solar system, which represents an
unprecedented opportunity to showcase leading European technological
and scientific expertise," said Alvaro Gimenez Canete, ESA's director
of science and robotic exploration.

NASA invited researchers in 2012 to submit proposals for NASA-provided
instruments for the mission. Nine were reviewed, with one selected to
fly. NASA agreed to provide critical hardware for two of the 10
selected European-led instruments. NASA's total contribution to the
JUICE mission is $100 million for design, development, and operation
of the instruments through 2033.

The NASA contributions are:

-- Ultraviolet Spectrometer: The principal investigator is Randy
Gladstone of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. This
spectrometer will acquire images to explore the surfaces and
atmospheres of Jupiter's icy moons and how they interact with the
Jupiter environment. The instrument also will determine how Jupiter's
upper atmosphere interacts with its lower atmosphere below, and the
ionosphere and magnetosphere above. The instrument will provide
images of the aurora on Jupiter and Ganymede.

-- Radar for Icy Moon Exploration: The principal investigator is
Lorenzo Bruzzone of Universita degli Studi di Trento in Italy. The
U.S. lead is Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
in Pasadena, Calif. Under the lead of Bruzzone and the Italian Space
Agency, JPL will provide the transmitter and receiver hardware for a
radar sounder designed to penetrate the icy crust of Europa,
Ganymede, and Callisto to a depth of about 5 miles (9 kilometers).
This will allow scientists to see for the first time the underground
structure of these tectonically complex and unique icy worlds.

-- Particle Environment Package: The principal investigator is Stas
Barabash of the
Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The U.S. lead is Pontus Brandt of
the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in
Laurel, Md. Under the lead of Barabash and the Swedish National Space
Board, APL will provide instruments to this suite to measure the
neutral material and plasma that are accelerated and heated to
extreme levels in Jupiter's fierce and complex magnetic environment.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate conducts a wide variety of research
and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather,
the solar system, and the universe. The New Frontiers Program Office
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will
manage the NASA contributions. JUICE is the first large-class mission
in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Program.

For more information on NASA planetary programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For more information about the JUICE mission, visit:

http://sci.esa.int/juice


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