Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Russian scientists plan new space expedition to study Jupiter's biggest moon

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Russian scientists have been planning a new space mission to Ganymede — the biggest Jupiter's moon, Director of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) Mikhail Panasyuk told TASS. 

The project undertaken jointly with Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences is in a preliminary stage yet when the shape of a space apparatus and a set of scientific equipment on board are being planned and the main goals of the space project are being determined, Panasyuk said.

The scientists are to resolve the task of protection of the space apparatus from the most powerful radiation, he said. Jupiter is an absolutely horrible planet in terms of radiation, which is hundred thousand times stronger near any of Jupiter’s moons than in the radiation field anywhere around the Earth, he said.

During the space mission the space apparatus will fly around one of the Jupiter's moons with no touch down planned. The estimated radiation-proof parameters of the equipment on board indicated that the space research apparatus might be present on the surface of Jupiter’s moons for no more than a few dozen minutes. "No such radiation-proof equipment exists yet,"Panasyuk said .... http://tass.ru