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Accueil > A propos du LPP > Communication > Actualités archivées > 2020 > Flight model of the search coil magnetometer of the JUICE mission delivered to ESA

Flight model of the search coil magnetometer of the JUICE mission delivered to ESA

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The JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) emission is the first L-class mission of ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. The launch of the spacecraft is scheduled for June 2022, with a cruise phase of about 7 years in the interplanetary space and several fly-bys of internal or telluric planets (Earth, Venus, Mars) a period of scientific observations of the Jovian system lasting about 3 years (nominal mission phase). The main objective of the mission is the study of Jupiter as a prototype of giant gas planets as well as the study of three of its Galilean moons discovered by Galileo (Europa, Callisto and Ganymede). The study of plasma phenomena in the Jovian magnetosphere and the plasma interactions between Jupiter and its moons is a very important part of the scientific objectives of the mission. The moon Ganymede is particularly important because it has its own magnetic field and therefore a magnetosphere embedded in Jupiter’s giant magnetosphere. JUICE will be the first satellite in the history of space missions to orbit Ganymede (for approximately 9 months).

The RPWI (Radio and Plasma Wave Instrument) experiment, coordinated by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (Principal Investigator : Jan-Erik Wahlund) is one of the 11 groups (“consortia”) of the JUICE payload. RPWI will provide measurements of electric and magnetic fields by using various instruments such as Langmuir probes, electric antennas and a search coil magnetometer.

The Plasma Physics Laboratory (LPP) participates in the RPWI consortium as a Lead Co-Investigator by supplying the SCM search coil magnetometer. This magnetometer will allow for the first time three-dimensional measurement of magnetic fluctuations (0.1 Hz - 20kHz) in Jupiter’s magnetosphere. The use of highly integrated ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) detection electronics combined with a three-axis sensor, all installed about 10 m away from the JUICE satellite platform, will allow high sensitivity measurements.

Une partie de l'équipe JUICE du LPP avec l'instrument SCM avant d'être livré.

The measurements performed by SCM, together with the measurements of other RPWI instruments, will allow detailed studies of many types of electromagnetic fluctuations in Jovian plasmas, such as kinetic Alfvén waves, ion-cyclotron waves, lower hybrid waves as well as whistler waves and electron-cyclotron waves. All these fluctuations are central to the plasma electrodynamics of the Jovian system and are fundamental for the understanding of different energy transfer processes that lead to the acceleration and heating of ions and electrons (magnetic reconnection, wave-particle interaction, turbulence and shocks). The study of these processes is at the heart of the scientific activity of the LPP.

After a qualification campaign of the flight model started in October 2019, which was required to validate the functioning of the SCM instrument in the very harsh environment of Jupiter (high radiations, low temperatures -160 ° C), SCM was calibrated at the National Magnetic Observatory of Chambon-la-Forêt. SCM then passed ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) tests at ESTEC (ESA), to be finally delivered to ESA at the manufacturer of the JUICE satellite (Airbus Defense System) end of August 2020. The SCM instrument is currently being installed on the satellite boom and it will undergo satellite thermal vacuum testing in February 2021, along with all other instruments of the JUICE payload. The LPP SCM team has started the production of the SCM spare model, to be delivered at the end of 2020.

The SCM Team includes six scientists and five engineers of LPP (science lead : A. Retino, project manager : M. Mansour) and SCM was designed, built and tested in collaboration with L2E (Sorbonne University), DT-INSU (CNRS, Meudon), Nexeya and more than fifteen subcontractors with the significant support of CNES, CNRS and Ecole Polytechnique.

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