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Irish researchers based at DIAS to test key instruments helping to ensure spacecraft stays on right trajectory

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Juice mission to Jupiter to undertake high risk fly-by of Earth and Moon – The Irish TimesSubscribeSubscribeSubscribeHomeLatestSubscriber OnlyIrelandDublinEducationHousing & PlanningSocial AffairsStardustPoliticsPollOireachtasCommon GroundElections & ReferendumsOpinionEditorialsAn Irish DiaryLettersCartoonBusinessBudget 2025EconomyFarming & FoodFinancial ServicesInnovationMarketsWorkCommercial PropertyWorldUS ElectionEuropeUKUSCanadaAustraliaAfricaAmericasAsia-PacificMiddle EastSportGaelic GamesRugbySoccerGolfRacingAthleticsBoxingCyclingHockeyTennisYour MoneyPricewatchBudget 2025Crime & LawCourtsPropertyResidentialCommercial PropertyInteriorsFoodDrinkRecipesRestaurantsHealthYour FamilyYour FitnessYour WellnessGet RunningLife & StyleFashionBeautyFine Art & AntiquesGardeningPeopleTravelCultureArtBooksFilmMusicStageTV & RadioEnvironmentClimate CrisisTechnologyBig TechConsumer TechData & SecurityGamingScienceSpaceMediaAbroadObituariesTransportMotorsCar ReviewsListenPodcastsIn the News PodcastInside Politics PodcastThe Women's PodcastInside Business PodcastRoss O'Carroll-KellyThe Counter Ruck PodcastWeb 1.0VideoPhotographyHistoryCenturyTuarascáilStudent HubOffbeatCrosswords & PuzzlesCrosaireSimplexSudokuFamily NoticesOpens in new windowSponsoredAdvertising FeatureSpecial ReportsSubscriber RewardsCompetitionsWeather ForecastSpaceJuice mission to Jupiter to undertake high risk fly-by of Earth and MoonIrish researchers based at DIAS to test key instruments helping to ensure spacecraft stays on right trajectoryThe spacecraft is about to embark on a 6.6 billion km journey to explore whether Jupiter's ocean-bearing moons can support life. Kevin O'SullivanMon Aug 19 2024 - 10:11European space ­scientists are about to attempt one of the most daring operations ever undertaken in interplanetary flight. They are due to direct their Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) to make a fly-by of Earth and its moon – and carry out the first double gravity-assist manoeuvre in space.A team of astrophysicists from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies will help with the manoeuvre, due to be carried out on Monday and Tuesday, by carrying out tests remotely to ensure the spacecraft is on the right trajectory.The high-risk exercise is vital to the success of the European Space Agency (ESA) mission and is aimed at taking the €1.6 billion robot craft to its target, Jupiter, by 2031. There it will begin exploration of two of the giant planet’s moons, Europa and Ganymede, in a bid to find signs of life that may lurk in their ice-covered oceans.The manoeuvre will require extraordinarily accurate navigation as the slightest mistake could take Juice off course and doom the mission, the ESA said.READ MOREWhere did it all go wrong for Press Up?Well-known solicitor pays more than €2.85m for Johnny Ronan’s Fitzwilliam Square Georgian building ‘I’m trying to build a social life, but how can I when my parents call to see me all the time?’At least nine killed, 2,750 injured after Hizbullah members’ pagers explode in Lebanon and Syria“It’s like passing through a very narrow corridor, very, very quickly: pushing the accelerator to the ­maximum when the margin at the side of the road is just millimetres,” said Juice’s spacecraft operations manager, Ignacio Tanco.It is an extraordinary interplanetary waltz requiring Juice to travel at exactly the right speed, time and direction for each encounter. However, without such precise manoeuvring, space engineers simply could not explore the Sun’s more remote planets, the ESA said. It may be possible to spot the spacecraft in the sky as it hurtles by the earth.To fly straight to Jupiter would require Juice to carry 60,000kg of propellant, an unfeasible load, explained Prof Caitríona Jackman of DIAS Planetary Magnetospheres Group – she is working on the mission with colleagues Dr Mika Holmberg and Dr Hans Huybrighs.In energy terms, it has been described as getting shots of espresso coffee along the way. In addition, it would need more fuel to slow down so that it could enter into orbit around the planet. That means the scenic route, using the inner planets to gain gravitational assists to reach its target, is the only way to get to the outer solar system.This fly-by is hugely important as it’s one of the few opportunities to make certain measurements and adjustments during Juice’s eight-year journey to Jupiter, Prof Jackman said. “The lunar-Earth fly-by will be an opportunity for the DIAS team to test their ideas about the spacecraft’s behaviour in the environment of a moon, in preparation for the actual fly-bys of Jupiter’s moons.”“We will be monitoring the fly-by with trepidation as it’s an extremely challenging undertaking – the slightest mistake could take Juice off course and spell the end of the mission,” she said“This is the first step in Juice’s journey through the solar system on its way to Jupiter. The spacecraft will use the gravity of the Moon and then Earth to bend its path through space and redirec

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