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New Greek Industrial Participation in EU Space Mission to Jupiter

The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer's ground-based mechanical model delivered last August to AIRBUS, the Greek aerospace company INASCO HELLAS.

This ground-based mechanical moduke, officially called JUICE Spacecraft EM Structure (JUICE SEMS), is the first critical and crucial delivery of the JUICE space vehicle mission to the planet Jupiter.

The JUICE spacecraft is a system that will be equipped with dozens of scientific instruments and mechanical interfaces and sophisticated wiring harnesses that connect all electronic subsystems and instruments.

INASCO HELLAS 'JUICE SEMS mechanical ground module will be used to perform and certify all the assembly procedures of the spacecraft's wiring and scientific instruments as well as instrument and electromagnetic compatibility testing of the instruments before they are assembled in the final spacecraft that will be sent to Jupiter.

Any assembly or integration of an individual component or mechanical interface or sub-construction or cabling completion or any functional certification required in the entire construction will be carried out first on INASCO HELLAS's JUICE SEMS mechanical module.

Once judged to be successful and fully functional without any adverse effect on the final Flight Model, then only will this procedure be applied to the final space vehicle. Then the final space vehicle will be placed in the Ariane 5 Space Shuttle, and will take off to travel to Jupiter.

The engineering model JUICE SEMS, designed, built and tested by the Greek company INASCO HELLAS, is the first necessary element to start all the above.

It has a weight of about 2.5 tons, dimensions 3.7 (x) 2.8 (x) 2.5 meters, consists of platforms of mechanical models of scientific instruments, units and equipment, and wiring and is 1: 1 equivalent of the final spacecraft to be sent to space.

JUICE SEMS is designed and manufactured entirely from high-strength aluminum alloy, while the JUICE spacecraft will be made from a combination of aluminum alloy and advanced composite carbon fiber materials.