ESA JUICE - PRIDE Experiment
JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is the ESA large class science mission. It is due to launch in April 2023 and arrive to the Jovian system in 2030. The prime goal of JUICE is to explore the habitable zone around Jupiter, including the icy moons of the planet. Ganymede is a high-priority target offering unique opportunities for analysing the nature and evolution of icy worlds, including the characteristics of subsurface oceans. On Europa, the focus will be on recently active zones. Callisto will be explored as a witness of the early Solar System. The mission will conduct scientific investigations using 11 onboard instruments plus a ground-based radio astronomical experiment PRIDE.
JIVE Participation
JIVE leads the radio astronomical component of the JUICE mission, the Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE). The essence of PRIDE is in observing the spacecraft radio signal with a network of Earth-based radio telescopes using VLBI-based signal recording and processing technology. The main measurables of PRIDE are the lateral coordinates and radial velocity of spacecraft. These values serve as input into improvement of the Jovian system ephemerides and serve as support to multi-disciplinary science investigations of the JUICE mission.
Website
Contact
Giuseppe Cimò (PRIDE PI), Leonid Gurvits (previous PRIDE PI)