The JUICE probe will not need to make a post-launch trajectory correction. Good news, obtained thanks to the quality of the flight of the Ariane 5 rocket. This should allow the JUICE mission to last longer.
This is excellent news for the European Space Agency (ESA) and a real source of satisfaction for Arianespace and ArianeGroup. The launch of the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the JUICE orbiter was of such quality that it will not be necessary to perform a post-launch correction maneuver. This is what the boss of Arianespace reveals on Tuesday, April 18.
” In short, given this perfect precision and the date of the flight of VA260 very close to the optimal date, the JUICE probe of the ESA will be able to avoid the maneuver of ‘correction of the injection of the launcher’ initially planned one month after launch », gets excited Stéphane Israël, who details in passing the extreme precision of the shot. Almost faultless:
- Semi-major axis: acceptable margin of 825 kilometers, injection 100 meters from the ideal.
- Eccentricity: acceptable margin of 0.00137, injection at 0.000012 of the ideal
- Inclination: acceptable margin of 0.042°, injection at 0.004° from the ideal.
Extra fuel for JUICE
The excellence of shooting will have very concrete beneficial repercussions for JUICE: since it is no longer necessary to consume fuel for trajectory correction, this can be kept for the mission itself. This means that the mission to explore the icy moons around Jupiter could potentially be extended.
This is not the first time that the quality of Ariane rocket launches has been noted. At the end of 2021, the European Space Agency calculated that the James Webb Space Telescope could have a lifespan much longer than originally planned. The observatory has reserves that will allow it to last ten years and even twenty years, in the best of scenarios.
Today, the operation of the JUICE orbiter should take it at least until 2034. The unexpected gain in fuel could lead ESA to extend the mission somewhat before rushing the launcher against Ganymede, one of the three moons which will be explored, with more exactly the Jovian system, with in sight the study of three moons, of which Callisto and Europa.
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