Decades of space missions are planned in seconds. The exact route a spacecraft travels through the solar system is meticulously planned based on years of design and testing. If you want to deviate from these, you need a compelling reason.
But that’s exactly what happened in 2005 during NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn. Imperial College London physicist Michelle Dougherty saw something unusual and asked for a closer look at Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. What the probe saw was incredible. A large amount of water vapor is erupting from the crack at the south pole of the moon.
Now that Cassini has long since departed, Doherty hopes to make even more unusual discoveries as principal investigator on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE mission. The project, which started in April, has clear goals. It’s about better understanding whether Jupiter’s moons have the right ingredients to support life.
Jupiter has 80-95 moons, but JUICE will focus on 3 of its 4 largest. It will pass Europa, the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede, Callisto, and orbit around Ganymede.
Mr. Dougherty says new scientist Why do we need to be open to unforeseen secrets that may lurk beneath the icy exterior of these worlds, and how she intends to uncover them? of
Becca Caddy: How did it feel to change course…