Mastodawn

Mark McCaughrean May 12, 2023

Outstanding news from our ESA #JUICEmission to Jupiter & its icy moons, launched on 14 April 🚀🛰️

The 16-metre long RIME radar antenna, designed to probe up to 10 kilometres into the icy crusts of Ganymede, Europa, & Callisto, has now been successfully deployed, after earlier problems 👍

Excellent work by our project & operations team, & fantastic news for all of the scientists involved 🙇‍♂️

#SpaceExploration #SpaceFlight #Astrodon

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Juice_s_RIME_antenna_breaks_free

Juice’s RIME antenna breaks free

More than three weeks after efforts began to deploy Juice’s ice-penetrating Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) antenna, the 16-metre-long boom has finally escaped its mounting bracket.

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adingbatponder

👾May 12, 2023

@markmccaughrean woah ! that was kept quiet.... what a #£&% up that would have been. Do they normally have #NEA s in these things ?? Were they a backup or what? Cool. There must have been quite some stress ....

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Mark McCaughrean May 12, 2023

@adingbatponder Yep, lots of relief around here. Losing RIME would have have been a big loss, albeit not mission critical. JUICE will probe the oceans below the crusts via gravity/radio science, laser altimetry, & magnetic field measurements as well.

But it wasn't kept quiet – we had informed everyone that there were problems a couple of weeks ago, if not before: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Work_continues_to_deploy_Juice_RIME_antenna

Work continues to deploy Juice RIME antenna

Juice’s ice-penetrating RIME antenna has not yet been deployed as planned. During the first week of commissioning, an issue arose with the 16-metre-long Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna, which is preventing it from being released from its mounting bracket.

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Mark McCaughrean

@adingbatponder As for the use NEA's, yes, they're standard. I'm not sure exactly which NEA was fired to generate the necessary shock & whether the stuck pin was also an NEA – something to try & get more details on from my project friends.