The SwRI-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, JUICE, has successfully completed its initial commissioning following the spacecrafts April 14 launch. This section of JUICE-UVS data shows a swath of the southern sky, revealing numerous UV-bright stars in the Milky Way near the southern constellation Carina on the left. The cloud-like structure on the right is a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit: ESA/NASA/SwRI/ P. Molyneux/M. Versteeg/S. Ferrell/T. Greathouse/M. Davis
” Our team of SwRI researchers took a trip to Darmstadt, Germany, to put JUICE-UVS through its rates,” said Dr. Randy Gladstone, JUICE-UVS principal private investigator. “On June 20, we opened the UVS aperture door to collect UV light from area for the first time. Not long after, we observed a swath of the sky to verify the instrument was performing well.”
The team imaged a sector of this information, as the instrument scanned a swath of the Milky Way.
SwRI has actually provided ultraviolet spectrographs for other spacecraft, including ESAs Rosetta comet orbiter, as well as NASAs New Horizons mission to Pluto, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter objective in orbit around the Moon, and Juno mission to Jupiter.
” JUICE-UVS is the 5th in this series, and it benefits significantly from the design experience gained by our team from the Juno-UVS instrument, released in 2011, as it relates to operating in Jupiters extreme radiation environment,” said Steven Persyn, program supervisor for UVS. “Each successive instrument we develop is more capable than its predecessor.”
Weighing simply over 40 pounds and drawing just 7.5 watts of power, UVS is smaller than a microwave oven, yet this powerful instrument will identify the relative concentrations of different elements and molecules in the atmospheres of Jupiters moons once in the Jovian system. A similar instrument, Europa-UVS, will introduce in 2024 aboard NASAs Europa Clipper, which will take a more direct route to arrive at the Jupiter system 15 months before JUICE and concentrate on studying the possible habitability of Europa.
“Having two UVS instruments making measurements in the Jupiter system at approximately the same time will provide exciting complementary science possibilities,” stated Dr. Kurt Retherford, primary detective of Europa-UVS and deputy PI for JUICE-UVS.
Aboard JUICE, UVS will get close-up views of the Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all believed to host liquid water beneath their icy surfaces. UVS will tape-record ultraviolet light given off, sent and shown by these bodies, revealing the structure of their surface areas and rare atmospheres and how they interact with Jupiter and its giant magnetosphere. Extra clinical goals consist of observations of Jupiter itself in addition to the gases from its volcanic moon Io that spread out throughout the Jovian magnetosphere.
JUICE is the first large-class objective in ESAs Cosmic Vision 2015– 2025 program. The spacecraft and science instruments were developed by teams from 15 European countries, Japan and the United States. SwRIs UVS instrument team includes additional researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, the SETI institute, the University of Leicester (U.K.), Imperial College London (U.K.), the University of Liège (Belgium), the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (France). The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center supervises the UVS contribution to ESA through the companys Solar System Exploration Program. The JUICE spacecraft was established by Airbus Defence and Space.
ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, will make detailed observations of the huge gas planet and its 3 large ocean-bearing moons– Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa– with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The objective will define these moons as both planetary things and possible environments, check out Jupiters complicated environment thorough, and study the broader Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe. Credit: ESA
The Southwest Research Institutes Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS), part of the ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft, has successfully finished its initial screening. UVS will study Jupiters icy moons, with a focus on Ganymedes possible habitability, throughout an eight-year mission to the Jupiter system.
The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft has effectively completed its initial commissioning following the April 14 launch. The UVS instrument is one of three instrument jobs making up NASAs contribution to the JUICE objective. The objectives science objectives concentrate on Jupiter and its system, making multiple flybys of the planets large, ocean-bearing satellites with a specific focus on examining Ganymede as a possibly habitable planetary body.
The mission has overarching goals of examining possibly habitable worlds around the gas giant and studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants in our solar system and beyond. As it starts a roundabout 4.1-billion-mile (6.6-billion-kilometer), eight-year journey to the Jupiter system, the spacecraft has actually been busy releasing and activating its antennas, booms, sensing units, and instruments to check out and commission all its essential subsystems.
ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, will make comprehensive observations of the huge gas world and its 3 large ocean-bearing moons– Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa– with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The objective will define these moons as both planetary objects and possible environments, explore Jupiters complicated environment in-depth, and study the broader Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe. The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard ESAs Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft has effectively finished its preliminary commissioning following the April 14 launch. The mission has overarching objectives of examining possibly habitable worlds around the gas giant and studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants in our solar system and beyond. As it begins a roundabout 4.1-billion-mile (6.6-billion-kilometer), eight-year journey to the Jupiter system, the spacecraft has been hectic releasing and activating its antennas, sensing units, instruments, and booms to check out and commission all its essential subsystems.