JUICE will communicate using technology from OHB’s Antwerp Space – Raumfahrer.net

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the JUICE mission to explore Jupiter’s three icy moons. Press release from OHB SE Bremen.

Source: OHB SE April 14, 2023.

Antwerp, April 14, 2023. For three and a half years, JUICE will study Jupiter’s atmosphere, magnetosphere, rings and large icy moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. It is believed that beneath their frozen crust are oceans of liquid water and possibly even habitable environments. The culmination of the mission will be the orbit of the icy moon Ganymede. The end of the mission is planned for 2034 – then the planned impact of the probe on the lunar surface should occur.

Antwerp Space, a subsidiary of the OHB SE aerospace and technology group, developed the communications subsystem on behalf of prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space. The communications subsystem will communicate with Earth during the eight-year journey to Jupiter and the subsequent science phase. “The system was designed, optimized, analyzed, integrated and successfully tested for four years by the Antwerp Aerospace Engineering team for the stringent requirements and harsh environment of the JUICE mission,” says Hugues Vasseur, lead engineer for the Antwerp Space team.

Developing a communications subsystem for a mission like JUICE requires in-depth knowledge and experience in space technology: the system will cover a distance of 800 million kilometers for communication between Earth and Jupiter and must withstand the harsh environmental conditions around Jupiter.

“I am very proud of the JUICE team and would like to thank Airbus Defense and Space and ESA for their close collaboration. Antwerp Space has once again successfully demonstrated its ability to take full ultimate responsibility in the development of such a complex system,” says Koen Boemig, Managing Director of Antwerp Space .