Artistic rendition of ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons, or Juice, mission.
Image is courtesy of Airbus.

SENER Aeroespacial has successfully completed the acceptance tests of the flight model of the magnetometer boom for the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission (JUICE).

Juice is a program of the European Space Agency (ESA) designed to expand knowledge of the complex interactions between Jupiter and its icy moons: Europe, Callisto and Ganymede. The spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in 2022.

SENER Aeroespacial was responsible for the design, manufacturing, verification and integration of the magnetometer boom, the purpose of which is to place some of the instruments required for the scientific experiments away from the spacecraft in order to prevent magnetic interference. Once deployed, its length is 10.6 meters, being the longest boom made for an ESA project to date. It will carry five instrument sensors that are needed to perform two characterization experiments, one for the internal magnetic field of Ganymede, called J-MAG, and the other for the subsurface oceans of the icy moons, called RPWI.

The successful test of SENER Aeroespacial's
magnetometer boom at ESA.

SENER Aeroespacial also developed three other projects for JUICE: the medium-gain antenna subsystem (MGAMA), which includes the antenna reflector, the pointing mechanism and the control electronics; the design and manufacture of a series of Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE) for the assembly and testing of the satellite's solar panels; and the Filter Wheel Module (FWM) of the JANUS instrument, a high-performance camera to research Ganymede, Europa and Callisto and the Jovian system.

The unpacking of the JUICE primary structure in Lampoldshausen. Image is courtesy of Airbus and ArianeGroup.