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Irish scientists part of a unique spacecraft slingshot around Earth and the Moon

The slightest mistake could take the spacecraft off course and mean the end of the mission.

THE EUROPEAN SPACE Agency’s Juice craft will return to Earth tonight, taking part in a world first fly-by.

A team of three researchers from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) will play a key role in the first ever attempt to fly a spacecraft past the Moon, and then past Earth. 

Flight controllers from Esa will guide the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) past the Moon and then Earth.

The risky manoeuvre will take Juice on a shortcut to Jupiter via Venus, using the Moon’s gravity, and then Earth’s, as a natural brake – slowing itself down and then sling-shotting on to the next phase of its journey.

science-juice Press Association Images Press Association Images

The mission launched in April 2023 on a 4.1 billion-mile journey which will take more than eight years and aims to investigate whether Jupiter’s three moons – Callisto, Europa and Ganymede – can support life.

Onboard are 10 scientific instruments, which will investigate whether the gas giant’s three moons – Callisto, Europa and Ganymede – can support life in its oceans.

Today from around 11.57pm into the early hours of Tuesday, Esa says a double world first will take place with the lunar-Earth fly-by and the double gravity assist manoeuvre.

The move will change Juice’s speed and direction to alter its course through space.

However, the slightest mistake could take the spacecraft off course and mean the end of the mission.

Commenting on DIAS’s role in the flyby, Professor Caitriona Jackman, head of the planetary magnetospheres research group at DIAS, said, “We will be monitoring the flyby with trepidation as it’s an extremely challenging undertaking – the slightest mistake could take Juice off course and spell the end of the mission.

“This is the first step in Juice’s journey through the solar system on its way to Jupiter. The spacecraft will use the gravity of the Moon and then Earth to bend its path through space and redirect it on course for a flyby of Venus in August 2025.

“This will help to ensure it arrives at Jupiter with the right speed and direction. It’s a journey that requires perfect accuracy and in-depth planning.”

Jackman said that having the opportunity to test ideas about the spacecraft’s behaviour in the environment of a moon “is truly exciting and will be a huge boost in confidence for our research once Juice arrives at Jupiter”.

“The encounter of Earth’s moon is a practice-run for when we get to Jupiter, where we will study moons with underground oceans that might support life. I’m extremely proud of the work carried out by our research group so far, and that we can be part of such an important mission.”

Earth will bend Juice’s trajectory through space, redirecting it on course for a fly-by of Venus in August 2025.

From then on, the energy boosts will begin, with the spacecraft being sped up by Venus and then twice by Earth – the space exploration equivalent of drinking three back-to-back espressos.

The risky manoeuvres are needed because Jupiter is on average 800 million kilometres from Earth.

Without an enormous rocket, sending Juice straight to the gas giant would require an impossible 60,000kg of onboard propellant.

darmstadt-germany-10th-feb-2023-angela-dietz-mission-engineer-for-the-european-space-agencys-jupiter-mission-sits-in-the-european-space-operations-center-esoc-in-the-place-from-which-she-will Angela Dietz, mission engineer for the European Space Agency's Jupiter mission, sits in the European Space Operations Center (ESOC) Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

It would also need to carry a huge amount of additional propellant to slow itself down enough to go into orbit around Jupiter once it arrives, rather than simply zipping straight past and off into outer space.

The complex and constantly evolving route has been carefully planned out by the mission analysis team over the last 20 years.

Some keen stargazers may be able to spot Juice pass overhead, with the spacecraft flying directly over south-east Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

Powerful binoculars or a telescope will give them the best chance of seeing the spacecraft.

Two cameras on board Juice will be taking photos throughout the lunar-Earth flyby, which will be shared publicly as they are received on Earth.

With reporting from David Mac Redmond

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    Mute Mary Mc Carthy
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:17 PM

    Too little too late for thousands of women

    246
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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 26th 2020, 6:21 PM

    @Mary Mc Carthy: Of which I am one. Keep yelling. We need you.

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    Mute Joe Toner
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    Jul 26th 2020, 10:57 PM

    @Mary Morrisey:
    Keep fighting Mary…. Behind you all the way.

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 27th 2020, 8:15 AM

    @Joe Toner: Very appreciated, Joe. My fight is almost over. The future of others is the concern.

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    Mute Isabel Oliveira
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:20 PM

    They can start by analysing samples in Ireland & by immediately re-initiating cervical screening , colon screenings , etc before more tragedy happens. Apologising and hollow promises are not good enough .

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 26th 2020, 6:29 PM

    @Isabel Oliveira: My first diagnosis was in the US ten years ago. My doctor took my swab and viewed it immediately. I was diagnosed then and there. No waiting. The under-training, bureaucracy and stupidity of a system that forgets the importance of compatibility of tech BEFORE signing a contract is inexcusable.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 26th 2020, 7:38 PM

    @Isabel Oliveira: Our scientists who were experienced and qualified to screen smears have retired or retrained in other disciplines. It takes years to become a competent screener. We don’t have the expertise anymore.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 26th 2020, 7:40 PM

    @Mary Morrisey: Your doctor isn’t qualified to look at your smear. A series of procedures needs to occur to allow the various types of cells to become visible under a microscope. Your doctor could see blood in your smear, not nuclear detail on the cells which is how cancer is determined.

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    Mute Sinead Foley
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    Jul 26th 2020, 9:04 PM

    @Ciara Ní Mhurchú: which begs the question… why don’t we? There has to be accountability. This wasn’t simply human error, this was a complete systems failure and concerted withholding of information on many levels. It’s heartbreaking.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 26th 2020, 10:51 PM

    @Sinead Foley: because harney outsourced the prgramme to the US So medical scientists in that area retired or moved discipline. No one is going after Harney I have noticed, when shes the one responsible for this. Not Holohan or anyone else, Harney.

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    Mute Sinead Foley
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    Jul 26th 2020, 11:04 PM

    @Ciara Ní Mhurchú: yes agreed Ciara that’s the truth but that does not exonerate those who came into possession of the facts and information when it became blatantly obvious that there was an issue. I remember being at a lecture on women’s health in uni and this very issue was discussed, questioned and subsequently dismissed and that’s some time back. Yes Mary Harney made the economic decision but by God her successors saw the consequences and stood idly by. As someone who was involved in women health this whole thing turns my stomach.

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 27th 2020, 8:06 AM

    @Ciara Ní Mhurchú: My doctor here wasn’t, hence my long wait to hear it has returmed and missed opportunity to treat. My doctor in The States was, which is my point.

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 27th 2020, 8:25 AM

    @Ciara Ní Mhurchú: Harney outsourced to an incompatible tech to ours, then took her sweet time to rectify the situation.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 27th 2020, 11:25 AM

    @Mary Morrisey: It’s still outsourced.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 27th 2020, 11:26 AM

    @Sinead Foley: The consequences were inevitable as Harney was told. Her successorsndidnt know about it as its not as if she passed our fears on to her successors.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 27th 2020, 11:27 AM

    @Mary Morrisey: The issue is with the labs and doctors in the US.

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    Mute Martin Holohan
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:18 PM

    Commenting on a Sunday??
    Surely Leo deserves a 16k rise for this, after all the Govt are giving them out like smarties!!

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    Mute Michael Clinton
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:18 PM

    At last, a positive move.
    Now no delays or more deaths.
    Get it done now!!.
    You can rush pay increases through in a few days so get this done ASAP.

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    Mute Greedylocks
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:27 PM

    Its a postive move in the right direction and is to be welcomed. But could we have a similar action with prostate cancer in men.

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    Mute Emer Caffrey
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    Jul 26th 2020, 6:31 PM

    Another scandal brewing in breast screening or the total lack of it. It’s right at the bottom of the government’s list, while they’re happy to go ahead with Galway races, shop openings etc. Shameful

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    Mute Padraic O Sullivan
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:49 PM

    Please put Corporate Manslaughter on the Statute books. Cheers

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Jul 26th 2020, 5:56 PM

    @Padraic O Sullivan: On what basis? It’s a screening program, not a diagnostic program, so is only ever intended to catch most cases, not all.

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 26th 2020, 6:33 PM

    @Thomas O’ Donnell: I’m speechless at your misunderstanding of the our medical system and your lack of empathy. You’d make a great HSE manager.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 26th 2020, 7:41 PM

    @Mary Morrisey: Thomas is correct. It’s a screening program, not a diagnosis.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Jul 26th 2020, 8:36 PM

    @Mary Morrisey: I was responding to a comment, not giving a full analysis of the whole situation. The withholding of information was wrong and, from some of the accounts that were given, the manner in which the information was sometimes given was disgraceful. My concern would be that if there’s going to be litigation for every cancer the screening misses (within the normal percentages) then no one will do it.

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    Mute Sinead Foley
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    Jul 26th 2020, 9:41 PM

    @Thomas O’ Donnell: it was the reporting of the results or the non-reporting that’s the problem not the programme itself wouldn’t you say.

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    Mute Joe Toner
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    Jul 26th 2020, 11:00 PM

    @Thomas O’ Donnell:
    Wrong… Wrong…. Wrong….

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    Mute Mary Morrisey
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    Jul 27th 2020, 8:10 AM

    @Ciara Ní Mhurchú: What is the purpose of a screening program if not to diagnose positive or negative results?

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 27th 2020, 12:44 PM

    @Joe Toner: He’s not wrong Joe.

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    Mute Ciara Ní Mhurchú
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    Jul 27th 2020, 12:47 PM

    @Mary Morrisey: Screening programmes are to detect presymptomatic/ early signs of the disease, not the disease itself. It’s not as simple as being positive or negative for it.

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    Mute isnt it grand?
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    Jul 26th 2020, 9:56 PM

    The HSE has a accumulated a very large drawer of “pledges”……….

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    Mute AOL
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    Jul 26th 2020, 9:17 PM

    Retroactive as always. Way too little too late

    12
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