Space jam 3.7m miles away puts Jupiter mission at risk

A MISSION to study Jupiter and learn whether alien life could live on its moons is at risk of being thwarted by a faulty spring mechanism.

Astronomers are battling to free a 52ft antenna attached to a piece of radar equipment which is “fundamental to understanding the depth of the oceans” on Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

The Juice mission launched a month ago and is now 3.7 million miles away from the Earth so a remote rescue operation is under way to fix the Rime (Radar for Icy Moons Exploration) apparatus.

Giuseppe Sarri, project manager of Juice at the European Space Agency (ESA), said he was 60 per cent confident the Rime will be freed in time to be fully operational before scientific investigations of the Jovian system begin in 2031.

Despite it being a scientific endeavour of unprecedented complexity, experts are having to resort to relatively rudimentary approaches to free the £3.5million piece of kit.

“The antenna is jammed and we have a plan in action to unjam it,” Mr Sarri said. “Of course the first question is why it is jammed. The most likely cause is that in one of the release mechanisms there is a spring which should have retracted and probably did not so is blocking the antenna. One reason could be elastic deformation because that side of the antenna where the spring is is very cold, it is at -80°C.”

Using the Sun’s rays to warm up the apparatus in the hope the contraction and expansion of the metal would free it, combined with a shake from the blast of the engines, have so far failed to work.

ESA’S next trick to free Rime is to make the antenna spin around to break free of its bracket while using the eight 22-newton thrusters to shake Juice in several directions. “There are several

‘There are several things that we can still do to fix this and we are keeping our fingers crossed’

things that we can still do and we keep our fingers crossed,” Mr Sarri said.

Should it be irreparable, then the other nine instruments will be able to cover for most of the lost capabilities – plus time is on the side of the mission.

“We don’t need the antenna tomorrow, we need the antenna in eight years’ time,” said Mr Sarri.

“If we are missing this antenna, we will have one instrument less which is not good at all. But we still have a good mission.”