ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, is set to embark on a seven-year cruise to Jupiter starting May 2022. The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant planets now known to orbit other stars.
On its journey it will make three flybys of Earth, and one each at Venus and Mars to set it on course for its October 2029 rendezvous in the Jovian system. It is expected that a number of instruments will be activated during the gravity assists (indicated by the coloured beams scanning across the planet) and measurements will be taken for calibration and to check the health of the instruments. The Mars flyby will see Juice fly over the planet’s south pole to make scientific observations.