Student: Joseph Senchuk, Undergraduate Student in Electrical Engineering, University of Iowa
Research Mentor: Donald L. Kirchner
JUICE: Radar for Icy Moon Exploration: Ground Support Equipment
JUICE is an upcoming European Space Agency mission to Jupiter that when injected into orbit, will use scientific instruments to make
observations about three Jovian icy moons: Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto.
Included in the JUICE payload will be the instrument RIME, Radar for Icy Moon Exploration. RIME is an ice penetrating radar that will study the subsurface oceans of the three icy moons.
Instruments like Rime require years of testing before they are deemed fit to be sent into space. Ground Support Equipment or GSE is used to carry out testing on earth and simulate the operations the radar.
My specific role in the group has been to design, build, and test GSE units before they are used to test the radar instrument.