the Juice mission At the beginning of the eighthyear’s trip Jupiter and its moons, but one of its scientific instruments is already misbehaving.
The European Space Agency’s Jovian probe is having difficulty deploying its Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) radar antenna, which is still “partially extended but still hidden,” according to one statement by the space agency.
Jupiter’s icy moon exploreror JUICE for short, launched on April 14 on a 12-year mission to study three of Jupiter’s icy moons: EuropaAnd GanymedeAnd Callisto. During its first two weeks in space, the spacecraft was operating the various instruments on board. JUICE already has it She took her first pictures Using his surveillance cameras, he deployed his solar array, and even got his first taste of science He spread his magnetic arm and recording a flicker of the surrounding magnetic field.
when it’s time to post 52-foot-Long (16 meters) radar antenna, but things did not work out Go smoothly to get the juice. with task controllers ESA Work has been done to edit the existing radar About a third of it entirely intended length. “Every day, the RIME antenna shows more signs of motion, which can be seen in images from the spacecraft’s onboard JUICE monitoring camera with partial radar and carrier visibility,” the ESA wrote in its statement.
A small pin may be stuck The team suspects that the antenna is being prevented from being fully deployed into orbit. They are considering different options on how to release the antenna, which could include burning the engine to “shake the spacecraft a little bit” and then spinning and rotating the spacecraft to warm up its mount and radar, and get it moving. From cold shadows to sunlight.
The RIME instrument is designed to probe the subsurface structure of Jupiter’s icy moons, and to explore the possibility of subsurface habitability. JUICE still has some time to figure out the radar antenna problem before reaching Jupiter and its moons, which is scheduled to happen in 2031.
For more spaceflights in your life, stay tuned Twitter and custom bookmarking for Gizmodo Spaceflight page.