Have for almost a month ESA-Engineers attempted a 16 meter long folded Radar antenna on the Jupiter probe JUICE, which could not be extended, to be released from its blockage. At the end of last week, the ESA team in Darmstadt, Germany, finally managed to extend the antenna, as the JUICE mission announced on the short message service Twitter.
The radar antenna was blocked by a small one bolt. The first attempt only succeeded in solving a few parts. The shaking of the probe from the cranking of the engines and the heating with sunlight could move the bolt slightly, but the blockage could not be completely cleared. First the firing of a mechanical device called „Non Explosive Actuator“which was in the jammed bracket, finally led to the antenna being able to be fully deployed, ESA explains in a sending.
Die RIME said antenna should be able to structures in up to 9 kilometers deep to investigate. The ESA researchers want to use it to penetrate the icy surface of Jupiter’s icy moons and find out whether there is actually an ocean of liquid water beneath the icy shell. In which there could possibly be livable conditions.
But it will still take some time until then. 2029 should JUICE fly by the earth for the last time. Jupiter is said to be in July 2031 be reached. According to their investigations, the probe should then hit Jupiter’s moon Ganymede at the end of 2035.
