A day late and a nervous wait for the spacecraft to start talking back to Earth, ESA's JUICE mission is finally on its
way to the Galilean moons - including, SWI, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research's Submm-Wave
Radiometer
TK had the privilege to build, for colleagues in the Institute of Applied Physics in Bern, the radiometric calibration
target (A), the free-standing mm-wave polarizer (B) and the 530-625 GHz corrugated antenna feed (C) for IAP's
Quasi-Optical sub-system
The SWI can pick up the rotation based-emission of some simple molecules, enumerated below, might be
venting from these moons - the latter are still undergoing tidal heating. Measurements may, along with others
of the ten instruments on board, give clues to the existance of Prokaryotic life in the outer solar system.
(Images above taken and acknowledged from MPI's JUICE explanation: © MPS )
See www.mps.mpg.de/planetary-science/juice-swi
Above - flight and spare Au plated Tungesten free standing wire grids and electoformed corrugated horns.
Below, radiometric calibration targets, slowing the black internal profiled microwave absorber and the external spiral
channels to heatsink the platinum resistance thermometers, used to calibrate the sensitivity of the radiometer.