In 'world's first', ESA's 'Juice' spacecraft set to attempt first-ever Moon-Earth flyby on route to Jupiter

It’s a double world first. The first-ever lunar-Earth flyby, and the first-ever double gravity assist manoeuvre.

A European Space Agency(ESA) led spacecraft, with the mission to explore Jupiter and its three icy moons, will on August 19 fly extremely close to the moon and a day later past the Earth itself.

According to ESA, it’s a double world first. The first-ever lunar-Earth flyby, and the first-ever double gravity assist manoeuvre. It will change Juice’s speed and direction to alter its course through space, but it’s a daring feat; the slightest mistake could take Juice off course and spell the end of the mission.

"During the flyby, Earth will bend Juice’s trajectory through space, ‘braking’ it and redirecting it on course for a flyby of Venus in August 2025."" From that moment on, the energy boosts will begin, with Juice being whizzed up by Venus and then twice by Earth – the space exploration equivalent of drinking three back-to-back espressos," ESA said.

Join us live as #ESAJuice flies past the Moon!

Tonight, from 23:30 CEST join a panel of experts discussing the world's first lunar-Earth flyby. We're hoping to also share live images of the Moon captured by Juice.

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How to watch https://t.co/RDeA4I1bdj pic.twitter.com/liv7NSAVWC

— ESA's Juice mission (@ESA_JUICE) August 19, 2024

Jupiter is on average ‘just’ 800 million km away from Earth. Without an enormous rocket, sending Juice straight to the giant planet would require an impossible 60 000 kg of onboard propellant. And then Juice would need to be carrying an enormous additional amount of propellant to slow itself down enough to go into orbit around Jupiter once it arrives, rather than simply zipping straight past and off into outer space.

ESA said that the Juice spacecraft is taking the scenic route, using the gravity of other planets to carefully adjust its trajectory through space and ensure it arrives at Jupiter with the right speed and direction.

Somewhat counterintuitively, using the lunar-Earth flyby to slow Juice down at this point in its journey is actually more efficient than using the flyby to speed it up. If we had instead used this flyby to give Juice a boost towards Mars, we would have had to wait a long time for the next planetary flyby. This first ‘braking’ manoeuvre is a way of taking a shortcut through the inner Solar System.

Led by European countries, Japan, Israel and the United States are also part of one of the largest international outer solar system explorer missions in history which is aimed at exploring the possibilities of life in space and the origins of Jupiter.

The flyby Earth on August 20 will be the first of four flybys  that will put the single orbital spacecraft with no lander on the right path to arrive at Jupiter.

JUICE will then spend at least four years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.

*With Agency Inputs