Europe's JUICE mission to launch for Jupiter's icy moons

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00:00 With a maximum speed of just 5 kilometres per hour, the rocket Ariane was transported

00:05 from the warehouse it was built in towards the launch pad.

00:08 On board, the space probe known as JUICE, a probe which will make its way to the giant

00:13 planet Jupiter and also explore its icy moons, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede.

00:18 "We won't be looking for life forms.

00:21 With JUICE, we're going to try to figure out if the moons are habitable.

00:25 We're looking for three elements, water, energy and a fairly specific chemical which we can

00:29 abbreviate to CHNOPS, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur.

00:35 Researching habitability does not mean looking for life."

00:39 Discovered in 1610 by Galileo, these moons orbiting Jupiter enabled him to confirm the

00:44 theory of heliocentrism and that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

00:49 Four hundred years later, his successors are exploring them to better understand the planetary

00:53 system.

00:54 "Ganymede is even bigger than Mercury, so it's like a mini-planet.

01:01 And it's actually a sort of mini-solar system that we'll be studying through the mission.

01:05 And we hope that it will give us the elements to better understand Jupiter's system but

01:10 also other solar systems."

01:13 The European Space Agency is counting on Ariane 5 to launch its first mission to planets outside

01:18 of the solar system.

01:20 This will be its 116th and penultimate launch, the objective to be as precise as possible

01:26 in order to maximise the engine's lifetime.

01:29 "Every launch is a bet.

01:33 We're mastering the propulsion elements a lot more, so we have really fine-tuned control

01:37 over the motors.

01:38 We have high-performing navigation systems which enable us to have such precision."

01:45 It will take eight years for JUICE to reach Jupiter.

01:48 Four years later, in 2035, it will revolve around Ganymede and become the first probe

01:53 to orbit around a moon which is not the Earth's.

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