Interplanetary station JUICE deploys antenna - no threat to mission to search for life on Jupiter's satellites

Last month, the European Space Agency (ESA) sent an interplanetary space station to Jupiter. It is called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE). The apparatus was unable to deploy the submarine antenna, putting the entire mission in jeopardy. However, the problem has now been solved.

Here's What We Know

JUICE is an interplanetary space station designed to search for biological life on Jupiter's satellites. To do this, it has been fitted with a huge radar that has jammed and won't open. It's called the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME). Without it, the whole mission would have gone to waste.

Scientists were able to fix the malfunction, but it took them three weeks to do so. An on-board camera looks in the direction of the antenna. With it, ESA saw that the radar had opened to the full 16 meters.

Now the mission is safe, unless, of course, something happens in eight years. JUICE will arrive in orbit of the solar system's largest planet in mid-summer 2031. The 16-metre radar will make it possible to study the oceans of Jupiter's moons at a depth of 9km beneath the ice.

Source: ESA