JUICE Monitoring Camera
MCSE has been selected for the development of Monitoring Cameras for the JUICE spacecraft
JUICE – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – is the first large-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. Launched in 2023 and arrival at Jupiter in 2031, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
Project: JUICE Monitoring Camera
Customer: Airbus Defence & Space / ESA
Mission duration: 11 years
Launched on 14 April 2023
The JUICE Monitoring Cameras main objectives are the following:
- Provide low-rate colour video of solar array and antenna deployment after launcher separation and LEOP phase (typical duration: 1 week); a video of the full launch sequence may also capture the release from the fairing
- Provide low-rate colour video for monitoring purposes of JUICE appendices, i.e. solar array, antennas and booms behaviour during spacecraft main engine firings (duration of monitoring < 4 hours, up to 50 times spread over the spacecraft lifetime)
- Provide low-rate colour video of JUICE spacecraft arrival in the moon orbits of Jupiter, during the last 4 years of mission lifetime, after 8 years of interplanetary transfer (typically 150 images are taken during that 4 years period)
The long cruise phase and JMC operation (> 10 years) in difficult interplanetary environmental conditions (in particular temperature variations during Venus flyby), requires high reliability, especially at sensor level. A second condition driving the development is the extremely hostile radiation environment around Jupiter and its moons, which therefore requires the use of ECSS Class-1 radiation hardened electronic components, as well as qualified lenses and optical coatings.
The JUICE Monitoring Cameras use a specific type of CFA, that made the color calibration an important part of the camera production.
Relevant publications:
H. Xiao, W. Hajdas, P. Socha, S. Beauvivre, D. Kraehenbuehl, and R. Ziethe, Simulations of image distortion and radiation damage for ESA JUICE mission spacecraft camera, European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, Vienna, 2018.