The European Space Agency’sJUICE missionis on its way to Jupiter , but to get there it take some service in the configuration of multiple gravity assist as it fly by various planets . Yesterday it successfully completed its first flyby , but it was not your standard gravitational assist tactic . For the first clock time ever , a spacecraft used two supernal body in rapid taking over to exchange its upper , and it was the first - ever flyby of theEarth and the Moon .
Thefirst half of the lunar - Earth flybywas convey out on Monday , August 19 , with Juice snapping some astonishing photos of the Moon as it depart by . Yesterday it successfully make out the second leg , the flyby of Earth , sending more photo of our pale spicy dot home .
succus require to be trip pretty tight to get to Jupiter but the lunar - Earth gravitational assistance ( LEGA ) actually slowed the spacecraft down to put it on a Venus - bound trajectory . Once there it will get the initial substantial speed boost it needs , using the plentitude for another gravity assist in August 2025 . It will then be followed by two flybys of Earth , one in September 2026 and a net in January 2029 . It is due to reach out Jupiter and its icy moon in 2031 .
JUICE and the Moon right after the historic flyby on 21 January 2025.Image Credit: ESA/Juice/JMC ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Simeon Schmauß & Mark McCaughrean
It was a venturous maneuver but it saved JUICE a set of fuel ; so much so that it ’s in reality opened up the theory of comport out a much closer subject field of Ganymede , the largest Moon of Jupiter , and the ultimate object of study of the delegation .
While the focal point of this manoeuvre was to get into the right orbit at the right focal ratio , the LEGA let the team to take thepictures of the Moonand Earth as well as test out some instruments that could not have been examine in realistic blank conditions before .
“ The timing and locating of this double flyby allow us to good study the behaviour of Juice ’s instrument , ” Dr Claire Vallat , Juice Operations Scientist , said in astatement .
Earth snapped by Juice as it carried out a flyby on 18 March 2025.Image Credit: ESA/Juice/JMC Simeon Schmauß & Mark McCaughrean
“ It happens early enough in Juice ’s journey that we can practice the datum to prepare the instruments for comer at Jupiter . And give how well we hump the physical properties of Earth , the Moon , and the palisade space environment , it ’s also the ideal positioning to understand how the instrument respond to a real fair game . ”
More high - resolution photos of the Moon and Earth take by Juice ’s scientific camera , JANUSare expected to be downlinked and shared in the coming weeks .
