Imperial-led Jupiter-bound instrument successfully deployed

A week after launch, the boom hosting the magnetometer instrument on the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission has been successfully deployed. JUICE launched on 14 April 2023 , and one week later on the 21 April, the 10.6-metre boom was unfolded and the magnetometer instrument - J-MAG - was switched on. Data collected by J-MAG captured the moment of deployment. The J-MAG instrument will be crucial for JUICE's mission to characterise the oceans expected to be found beneath the outer icy crusts of three of Jupiter's moons - Ganymede, Callisto and Europa - and determine whether they might be able to support life. Although JUICE will take around eight years to get to the Jupiter system, the early deployment of the instrument is an important milestone for the feasibility of the mission. J-MAG Principal Investigator Professor Michele Dougherty , from the Department of Physics at Imperial, said: "It was a great relief to see the successful deployment of the magnetometer boom, which was the crucial next step for the team." - Tracing deployment. J-MAG consists of three sensors - one built at Imperial College London, one built at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, and one built at the Space Research Institute, Graz in partnership with Graz University of Technology, Austria.