21 Aug 2020
The first of two Swedish-led instruments has now left the Institute for Space Physics, IRF, to take a seat on the European spacecraft JUICE. The instrument Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation, RPWI, will measure electric and magnetic fields to identify and map the moon Ganymede's oceans beneath its frozen ice cover.
In 2013, the IRF was selected by the European Space Agency ESA to participate in one of their largest projects in planetary exploration. Since then, Sweden and the IRF have been responsible for two of the ten instruments on board JUICE (Jupiter Icy moons Explorer). In 2022, the spacecraft will be sent to Jupiter and the Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, three moons that have oceans under their thick ice sheets.
Jan-Erik Wahlund, a researcher at IRF's office in Uppsala, is responsible for RPWI, an instrument package with several sensors for measuring electric and magnetic fields and electrically charged particles.
“The instrument is designed to investigate, in particular, how Jupiter's magnetosphere interacts with the atmospheres of the icy moons. We mainly hope to identify and map how Ganymede's ocean flows under the ice sheet and what processes keep it going. With RPWI, we will not be able to detect any life in the oceans, but where there is liquid water, there are opportunities for life, ”says Jan-Erik Wahlund.
RPWI will contribute to the mapping of the entire magnetospheres of Jupiter and Ganymede. The researchers hope to get more information about how the moons work in detail but also study, for example, radio radiation that is emitted from Jupiter's surroundings.
In addition, JUICE will be the first spacecraft ever to rotate in orbit around the giant moon of the giant planet, Ganymede. The researchers know that the moon's own magnetic field generates strong electric fields that give rise to, among other things, aurora borealis particles.
IRF researcher Jan Bergman is happy to be a part of space science and space technology, which now places Sweden, with instrumental and scientific contributions from most other countries, in another place in the solar system.
“Fantastic people of all nationalities have contributed. Everyone at RPWI is very proud of this melting pot of international professionalism ", says Jan Bergman.
RPWI has instrument grants from nine institutions in five countries (Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Poland and Japan), with several grants from companies (eg RUAG, SSC, ÅAC Microtec, Meisei, Astronika and PZL) and scientific support from 20 institutions in eight countries (as above as well as Germany, Austria and the UK). ESA itself also supports several significant contributions. The spacecraft is made by Airbus.
JUICE is launched with an Ariane-5 rocket from French Guiana in 2022. The journey takes eight years.
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The Swedish-led instrument package Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation, RPWI, includes four langmuir probes on three-meter-long booms for the space mission JUICE (Jupiter ICy moons Explorer).