How to get engaged with the ESA JUICE mission?

The JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE), ESA’s first large-class Cosmic Vision mission, was launched on 14 April 2023 and is en route to Jupiter, where it will arrive in July 2031. Over four years, the mission will explore the Jupiter system, performing Jupiter observations, flybys of the Galilean icy moons and an orbital phase around Ganymede. JUICE will investigate the icy moons’ potential habitability, focusing on their subsurface liquid oceans, and will study Jupiter as an archetype of giant planet systems. It will also address magnetospheric interactions, tidal evolution, and additional targets such as Io, minor inner moons and rings and irregular moons.

Such a large and inspiring planetary mission attracts a lot of attention in the scientific community, the general public, media and various stakeholders. It is therefore important to communicate about the mission progresses and deliver data and results to these different communities in the most appropriate ways, depending on the phase of the mission (study, development, launch campaign, cruise, science phase, post-operation and legacy).

This presentation will cover the project’s communication strategy and will highlight some concrete engagement activities. Examples to bring the general public along include the drawing contest for the Ariane 5 fairing, the launch campaign and its outreach components, activities surrounding the gravity-assist flybys, general image releases including the observation campaign of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS or data sonification efforts.

Engaging the rest of the science community is also a big part of our communication effort. This includes, for example, regular Europlanet webinars and open calls for scientific participation. We will also explore collaborations with amateur astronomers’ networks in ground-based observations of Jupiter and stellar occultations of its moons (e.g. Kallichore), and look ahead to the rich scientific opportunities of the nominal mission phase.

The presentation will actively seek feedback from the Europlanet community on how to increase the mission’s accessibility to the public and strengthen scientific engagement for those already involved and potential newcomers.