ESA mission ready to see if Jupiter’s moons can support life

Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) will embark on a 4.1 billion-mile journey that will take more than eight years

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (ATG Medialab/ESA/PA)

A European spacecraft is all set to go to Jupiter in a €15.9 billion mission to explore whether its ocean-bearing moons can support life.

The six-tonne probe, named Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), will be heading towards the solar system’s biggest planet carrying 10 scientific instruments, in what is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) biggest deep-space mission yet.