Demonstration of the development of the thermal model JUICE inside the Big Space Simulator in the center of ESA (Netherlands).
JUICE is the future mission of ESA to explore the largest planet in our system (Jupiter) and its ocean satellites. The launch is scheduled for June 2022, and the flight itself should last 7 years. Uses several gravitational slingshots: Earth, Venus, Earth, Mars and again the Earth. Then he will enter the course to Jupiter.
In order to guarantee the functionality of the spacecraft with extreme temperature fluctuations, in May 2018, a thermal check was completed. The model of the device in multilayer insulation is seen in the foreground, and high-energy lamps and mirrors of the Sun simulator are visible in the upper part of the frame. Solar simulator is used to warm the ship to a temperature of 200 ° C. But the internal temperature of the vacuum chamber was reduced to -180 ° C by special insulators filled with liquid nitrogen. A cold, imitating low-temperature environment near Jupiter followed the hot phase.
