JUICE - JUpiter ICy moons Explorer - is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. With its launch in April 2023 and the 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. The JUICE spacecraft carries the most powerful remote sensing, geophysical, and in situ payload complement ever flown to the outer Solar System. JUICE spacecraft thermal control has to cope with a large variation of external environment during the mission (Sun flux from 3323 W/m² in the inner Solar System down to 46 W/m² in Jovian environment) and long eclipses of up to 4.9 hours. It is designed with the objective to minimize the impact of the external environment on the spacecraft through high efficiency Multi-Layer Insulation. Minimizing heating power demand especially during science and communication phases and minimizing hardware mass is a constant concern and solutions were found to build to a maximum extent a robust and passive thermal design supplemented by heaters. The paper will focus on the thermal performance of the spacecraft during its first year in Space, from LEOP and Near Earth Commissioning Phase to the early phase of the cruise to Jupiter.
Romain Peyrou-Lauga (Sun,) studied this question.