DELIVERY OF JUICE HARNESSES

JUICE, or Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, is the mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), which is to explore the three moons of Jupiter – Europe, Callisto and Ganymede. Set off in 2022, launched thanks to Ariane 5, a rocket designed by ESA, its flight will last six to seven years. It will most likely hit Jupiter’s orbit in January 2030, where it will spend the next three and a half years collecting data not only about the planet’s moons, but also about its atmosphere and magnetosphere.

What does this have to do with Airbus Poland? In 2017, we signed a contract for the production of platform harnesses for the probe in the JUICE mission. In total, we provide four harness deliveries: MX, PX, MY and PY. In January 2020, two harnesses were delivered to the clean room in Friedrichshafen – PX and MX in flight version. It is these harnesses that will be installed on the satellite and fly towards the moons of Jupiter. Importantly, this was the first such a large supply of flight type harnesses, we previously delivered individual harnesses for the JUICE, Janus and Biomass projects.

“In the coming weeks, we will be working on the remaining harnesses: MY and PY, which we plan to deliver to the client at the end of April, and then install them on the satellite structure in May,” says Magdalena Hartung, space program manager. Due to the mission’s research nature and participation in prototype production, its process is very complicated and requires a lot of flexibility from the team. Thanks to this, the Space team has significantly developed their skills within two years, ”adds Jakub Łukasiewicz, manager of the Department of Electrical Harnesses and Production of Space Programs.