The European Space Agency’s seven-year mission hopes to answer some tantalizing questions | DW News

It’s a big mission that will launch from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Thursday. The European Space Agency (ESA) is sending up its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, to ― well, explore three of Jupiter’s icy moons. Doesn’t sound too exciting yet? Then consider that one of the mission’s goals is to characterize “these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats,“ according to ESA. In other words, the mission aims to find out if life could be possible on Ganymede, Europa or Callisto, or whether life has existed on the moons in the past. The Juice project is a mission of many firsts. The spacecraft, which is being sent up on an Ariane 5 rocket, will be the first to change orbits from another planet (Jupiter) to one of its moons. And it will be the first to orbit a moon other than the Earth’s. The total costs of the mission stand at around €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion). Juice will carry several high-tech systems on board, “including the mo