HUN-REN Researchers Participate in ESA’s Most Important Interplanetary Mission

Researchers from the HUN-REN Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences are also participating in the PRIDE (Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment) of the JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission.

The HUN-REN Research Network stressed that PRIDE will make use of the radio communication equipment on board and monitor the radio signals emitted by the spacecraft using ground-based radio telescopes, thus helping to improve the scientific exploitation of data from planetary exploration spacecraft like JUICE. A detailed review of the experiment was recently published in the prestigious journal Space Science Reviews.

JUICE is one of the most important interplanetary missions of the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft was launched in April 2023, towards the largest giant planet in the Solar System. The mission aims to make detailed observations of Jupiter and its complex environment, in particular its three large Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

After a carefully planned eight-year journey, including a total of four gravity boost maneuvers near the planets Earth and Venus, JUICE will arrive at Jupiter in the summer of 2031.

Once in orbit around the giant planet, it will make a total of 35 close flybys of the three icy moons. Finally, at the end of 2034, the spacecraft will slow down and orbit Ganymede to study the moon’s surface, composition, and magnetosphere in more detail.

On board the spacecraft are a variety of instruments for remote sensing, geophysical and field measurements, including cameras, spectrometers, and instruments for studying the magnetic, radiation, and particle environment.

JUICE is the result of extensive international collaboration between Hungarian research institutions and the Hungarian space industry.

In addition to the ten on-board instrument ensembles, the multi-purpose PRIDE is a kind of “bonus experiment” of the JUICE science program, contributing to the best scientific exploitation of the mission without requiring a dedicated on-board instrument.

Now that JUICE is on its way to Jupiter, the international research teams developing the scientific experiments are presenting the scientific and technical background to their work in detailed review publications. A collection of these articles has been published in Space Science Reviews. The series started with a recent publication by the PRIDE team.

The research team also includes staff from the Konkoly Thege Miklós Astronomical Institute at the HUN-REN Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences.

The Hungarian team will search for and characterize compact extragalactic radio sources along the JUICE spacecraft’s sky path and participate in the planning and implementation of upcoming VLBI (Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry) observations. These radio sources will serve as sky reference points for the determination of JUICE’s position.

Via MTI, Featured image via Wikipedia