ESA prepares to search Jupiter's icy moons

As European Space Agency (ESA) gets ready to probe the surface of the king of the Solar System's cold moons, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, they enlisted the help of a helicopter close to Friedrichshafen, Germany. Pictured here as a mock-up, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) consisted of a rough representation of the spacecraft, simplified solar arrays and a model antenna.

The ‘spacecraft’ dangled 150 metres from the ground in order to understand the interaction between the spacecraft units and the antenna at different trajectories. These trajectories ranged from 50 metres to

320 metres above the 'surface of the Galilean moon'.