According to the European Space Agency, quoting Agence France-Presse, the space probe JUICE was able to pass between the moon and the Earth, in a precise maneuver to gain momentum and launch towards Jupiter.
The probe, which was launched into space in April, passed close to the moon on August 19, flying over Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, at an altitude of less than 7,000 kilometers.
The process consists of passing near a celestial body to take advantage of its gravity, a natural force that allows the probe to change its path and adjust its speed, speeding it up or slowing it down.
The Ariane 5 rocket that launched Juice into space was not powerful enough to propel the probe directly into the solar system, about 800 million kilometers from Earth.
Several space missions have already used this method, called gravity assist, but the flyby of the Moon with Earth’s orbit was a “world first,” the European Space Agency said.
The maneuver caused the probe to accelerate slightly as it passed near the moon, before slowing down near Earth and changing direction toward Venus, where it will arrive in 2025.
It will then return to Earth for two more flybys in 2026 and 2029, before finally arriving at Jupiter in July 2031.
JUICE will enable observation of the orange planet’s icy moons – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – as well as testing the probe’s instruments that will be used for this purpose.
In turn, this process will also allow us to understand the environments suitable for the possibility of life outside Earth.
However, the Moon-Earth maneuver was not carried out until after experts made small corrections to the trajectory during July.
