The Jupiter probe has lifted off – now the search for life in space has only just begun

The Jupiter probe “Juice” successfully set off for its mission on Friday. Aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, the six-tonne probe lifted off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 2:14 p.m. Swiss time. A first start attempt was canceled on Thursday due to a thunderstorm.

“It’s a great relaxation,” researcher Peter Wurz, who was involved with the mission, told Keystone-SDA. He is director of the Physics Institute at the University of Bern. Under his leadership, a measuring device for the “Juice” mission was developed and built in Bern.

The successful start was a big step for Wurz. Ten years ago he and his team started building the measuring instruments. Intellectual work on the mission had begun years earlier. He followed the start from the University of Bern.

“Juice” will now fly in ever-expanding circles around the Earth until it has enough momentum to fly towards Jupiter. The journey of approximately 628 million kilometers will take more than eight years. The probe will not arrive at the giant planet until July 2031. “Then the science really begins,” says Wurz enthusiastically.

Looking for life

Part of the mission is to look for signs of life. Previous missions to Jupiter suggest that there are oceans beneath the thick ice sheets of Ganymede and Europa. “Where there are oceans, life is theoretically possible,” Wurz said.

The researchers want to study three of the more than 80 moons of Jupiter, Ganymede, Kallisto and Europa. The average temperature on the surface of the icy moons is below minus 140 degrees Celsius.

“We want to use it to understand the formation of our solar system,” says Wurz. Since Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, an understanding of its formation is considered important for understanding Earth’s formation. History is preserved in the ice on Jupiter’s moons. Specifically, the scientists are investigating the chemical composition of the moons. “Juice” will not land on the icy moons to take water samples directly, but will only fly past them.

Swiss technology on board

Instruments from three Swiss institutions are on board the spacecraft. The University of Bern is leading the way with the neutral and ion mass spectrometer NIM (Neutral and Ion Mass Spectrometer). Developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), it will study the chemical and isotopic composition of particles in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s icy moons.

The Bernese scientists also developed a module for the GALA laser altimeter, which will examine the topography of Ganymede, as well as the optics and calibration unit for the Submillimeter Wave Instrument (SWI), which will measure, among other things, thermal radiation from Jupiter’s stratosphere .

The Paul Scherrer Institute supplied the Radem detector (Radiation-hard Electron Monitor). This instrument, which will operate throughout the eight-year journey, is designed to collect information about solar activity and how it affects our planet. It will also be used to map Jupiter’s complex radiation belts.

(jam/sda)