(May 10) – The European Space Agency (ESA) announced the final approval and selection of the “JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE),” which is the largest mission planned for the exploration of the solar system in the next 20 years (830 MEuros plus the costs of the payloads, for a final estimation of about 1.1 Billion Euros). One of the main tools of the mission will be a very sophisticated radar, which in recent years has been studied by an international team of scientists under the supervision of Professor Lorenzo Bruzzone, from the Department of Engineering and Computer Science of Trento. JUICE has emerged from a five-year-long competition with many other missions and has the goal to explore Jupiter system and its icy moons. The research project will analyze the different processes in the Jovian system, fundamental to understand the “livability” conditions of these satellites. The mission’s departure is planned for 2022 from the Kourou space base in French Guyana. The arrival of the European space probe into the Jovian system is planned for 2030 and it will be monitored for at least three years. Italy and the Italian Space Agency will have a relevant role in the mission thanks to the presence of Lorenzo Bruzzone and his Department of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Trento. Bruzzone participated in the scientific team that defined and planned the mission and is coordinator of the group that has studied for several years the radar sounder. This is a tool able to observe what happens below the surface of icy moons, reaching a depth of 9 km. The radar sounder will identify the possible presence of water layers in the subsurface of Ganymede and Europa: it would be a key to prove the existence of elementary forms of life on the icy moons. (Red)
