Are Extraterrestrial Life Forms Possible Under Ice?

The European spacecraft JUICE is prepared for an eight-year journey to Jupiter and its icy moons, whose oceans beneath the ice pack might be habitable, with the goal of determining whether extraterrestrial life forms are possible there. The JUICE satellite (Jupiter ICy moons Explorer mission) is spending its final hours on Earth in the clean room of its manufacturer Airbus in Toulouse. • To read also: Save good old Hubble • To read also: Dictated by the Moon.

The team of engineers, technicians, and scientists who have been working on this European Space Agency (ESA) flagship mission for many years are overcome by emotion. They can now finally reveal to the media their 6-ton "beast," which includes 10 scientific instruments, a 2,50-meter-diameter antenna, and enormous solar panels that need to undergo one final test, while wearing white coats and protective charlottes on their heads.

The spacecraft will be placed in its transport container with its wings folded in a few days. From there, it will travel to Kourou, French Guiana, where an Ariane 5 rocket will launch it in April. Goodbye; a memorial plaque honoring Galileo, who was the first to observe Jupiter and its largest moons in 1610, has been engraved on the back.

Io, a volcanic moon, and her three icy companions, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, were "the first moons discovered outside of our own," claims Cyril Cavel, JUICE project manager at Airbus Defense and Space, proudly displaying a copy of the Italian astronomer's "Sidereus nuncius" ("the messenger of the stars"), the first historical astronomy treatise. Four hundred years later, man is getting ready to study Venus' natural satellites in depth by launching a probe into orbit around one of them for the first time. Earth and Venus were used as catapults in this experiment.

JUICE will be the first mission from Europe to explore the outer solar system, which begins after Mars, the last planet of our solar system. The arrival is scheduled for 2031, so we will have to wait since the journey is expected to be lengthy.

Moreover, it must be winding because a direct path cannot be taken to reach Jupiter, which is 740 million kilometers from the Sun. As soon as it is launched, JUICE must rely on the Earth's gravity before moving to seek Venus'.

Nicolas Altobelli, a mission scientist for the European Space Agency (ESA), describes it as "like a catapult that gives us momentum to Jupiter.". Prior to encountering temperatures around -220 degrees Fahrenheit (close to absolute zero), its 85 m2 solar panels will also need to generate their maximum amount of power.

Once there, the spacecraft must fit into Jupiter's orbit while still fully autonomously braking from its 2 billion kilometers on the clock. According to Cyril Cavel, "If the maneuver fails, the mission is lost.".

The larger Ganymede will be orbited by Objective Ganymede JUICE after it has surveyed the Jovian system and its moons. It will attempt to determine whether or not the conditions are favorable for life using its cameras, sensors, spectrometers, and radars.

Not on the frozen surface, but ten or fifteen kilometers beneath, where the oceans' liquid currents flow. The head of the ESA, Josef Aschbacher, emphasized that "we are not going to detect large fish," but that there may be an environment that is favorable to bacteria and other forms of primitive life in deep habitats.

A number of prerequisites must be met, including the presence of liquid water and an energy source, in this case the "tidal effects" that Jupiter's gravity has on its moons. Nicholas Altobelli explains that JUICE could determine whether water is in contact with a rocky core using magnetic signals from Ganymede, which would allow chemical elements required for life, such as nutrients, to "be dissolved in the water.".

The mission's completion will involve the American spacecraft Europa Clipper traveling through Europe. The "logical next step" would be to send a lander to either moon if it turned out to be a viable candidate for life.

Io, a volcanic moon, and her three icy companions, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, were "the first moons discovered outside of our own," claims Cyril Cavel, JUICE project manager at Airbus Defense and Space, proudly displaying a copy of the Italian astronomer's "Sidereus nuncius" ("the messenger of the stars"), the first historical astronomy treatise.