ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was developed, constructed and tested at different sites across Europe. ‘The making of Juice’ series takes the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry and planetary science community involved in the mission.

Juice carries a state-of-the-art science payload made up of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. This episode focuses on the remote sensing instruments, which will study the atmosphere of Jupiter and the surfaces and exospheres of the icy moons.

Juice’s camera (JANUS) will image Jupiter’s clouds and geological features on the moons in high resolution. The Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer (MAJIS) will observe cloud features and atmospheric constituents on Jupiter, and characterise ices and minerals on the icy moons’ surfaces. The Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument (SWI), will investigate the temperature structure, composition and dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere, and the exospheres and surfaces of the icy moons. A UV imaging spectrograph (UVS) will explore the composition and dynamics of the exospheres of the icy moons, study the Jovian aurorae, and investigate the composition and structure of the planet's upper atmosphere.

The documentary includes interviews with (in order of appearance): Leigh Fletcher, Juice interdisciplinary scientist; Cecilia Tubiana, JANUS operation manager; Randy Gladstone, UVS principal investigator; Emma Bunce, J-MAG and UVS co-investigator; Francois Poulet, MAJIS principal investigator; Giuseppe Piccioni, MAJIS co-principal investigator; Paul Hartogh, SWI principal investigator; Miriam Rengel, SWI co-investigator.

November 2023 update: This episode is part of a film project that culminated in a two-hour documentary film released in November 2023.

Access the other episodes of ‘The making of Juice’

Credit: ESA/Lightcurve Films, original music by William Zeitler