Airbus and the European Space Agency have signed the contract that will lead to the construction of a satellite to go to study Jupiter and its icy moons.

Known as Juice, the mission is due to leave Earth in 2022 and arrive at the giant planet 7.5 years later.

When all these contributions are summed - including launch and operations - the full price for the JUpiter ICy moon Explorer is expected to exceed one billion euros.

As prime contractor, Airbus must now pull together a consortium of companies across Europe to build, assemble and test the satellite, making it ready for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket in six years' time.

Juice will carry a sophisticated scientific payload - including cameras, spectrometers, a laser altimeter and a radar.

To power all those instruments at Jupiter - a distance of 780 million km from the Sun - Juice will need a solar array system with a collecting area of almost 100 sq metres.

After launch, Juice will use Earth, Venus and Mars gravity to hurl itself out to the Jovian system.

On arrival, the probe will swing around the planet and its moons Callisto and Europa. Juice will then put itself in a settled orbit around Ganymede.

bbabo.Net