Europe’s Jupiter mission’s radar antenna has yet to be fully deployed after launch, but project officials say they still have many options for solving the problem. The European Space Agency reported on April 28 that the radar on the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft did not fully open its 16-metre antenna as expected within a week of its April 13 launch. The length of the antenna extending from both sides of the spacecraft was only one-third of the planned length.

The engineers suspect that a pin in the antenna is stuck, so the antenna is not hiding. “In this case, it is believed that only a few millimeters can change the operation of the remaining radars,” the agency said in a statement. Said. ESA is evaluating other antenna distribution measures. A future engine burn would potentially release the pin, shaking the spacecraft. The spacecraft will also rotate, allowing the currently shady antenna to move towards the sunlight and warm it up.

Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) is one of 10 instruments on JUICE. It was designed to study the icy surfaces of Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto to a depth of nine kilometers. RIME’s development was spearheaded by the University of Trento in Italy, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory contributed components to the instrument.

RIME is based on radar instruments used by two Mars missions: ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Many members of the RIME team worked on these two tasks. The RIME issue is the only significant issue reported during JUICE’s two-month commissioning phase. Other multi-system deployments continued without incident, including the deployment of the 10.6-metre magnetometer boom.

Arriving at the Jupiter system in 2031, JUICE is one of ESA’s flagship science missions. “This is a really great mission. Days after launching JUICE 38.