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The JUpiter Icy Moon Explorer mission (JUICE) was designed to investigate Jupiter, its environment and its icy moons with at least one Europa flyby, a high inclination phase around Jupiter and a 280 days long near polar orbital phase around Ganymede, with 130 days on a low circular orbit. The goal of the JUICE mission analysis consisted in implementing these mission elements within a tight mass and radiation budget. A shift in the nominal launch date from June 2022 to September 2022 then April 2023 resulted in an arrival date at Jupiter in July 2031, close to equinox, so that the duration of eclipses by Jupiter became a major issue. A mission scheme meeting the requirements was designed using innovative approaches such as a double swing-by of the Moon and the Earth and a low energy endgame targeting a grazing Callisto flyby then grazing Ganymede encounters. Thanks to a near optimum launch date and launcher performance with full tanks, the post-launch Delta-V margins (150 m/s) made it possible to re-instate a 200 km circular orbital phase at the end of the nominal mission as planned in the mission proposal. The remaining Delta-V margin (55 m/s) and that expected from clean-up costs lower than allocated make it possible, while keeping adequate margins for contingencies, to consider significant improvements of the baseline mission scheme, in particular a higher maximum inclination during the tour and an inclination on the 200 km orbit close to Sun-synchronous, so that a long extended mission can be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coma morphology and short-term evolution was investigated of three non-periodic comets in retrograde orbits, C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), and C/2003 K4 (LINEAR). All three comets display distinct coma features, which were very different from one comet to the next and remained rather constant in shape during the observational period. A single, broad feature perpendicular to the sun-tail direction dominated the coma of C/2003 K4 in all used filters (B,V,R,I), whereas the coma of Comet C/2002 T7 exhibited different features in blue and red filters. C/2001 Q4 showed rather complex coma morphology with clear short-term variability in coma brightness. Therefore, these non-periodic comets neither show a featureless coma nor any similarities of the features detected. The overall distribution of coma material was investigated from the shape of radial coma profiles averaged around the comet nucleus. For C/2001 Q4 and C/2002 T7, the slopes fitted to the linear part of these profiles are flatter in the blue than in the red, which can be explained by the presence of coma gas. For C/2003 K4 no such difference is indicated in the May observations (r = 2.3 AU), while in July (r = 1.7 AU) the profiles in the B-filter are flatter than in V, R, and I, hence gas contamination was relevant at least in the B filter. The R and I filter images were used to determine approximate Afρ values of each comet as a function of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have measured the inclusive p spectra of soft photons produced at central and backward rapidities in 450 GeV/c p-Be collisions down to 1 MeV/c in transverse momentum. In the region 1< p<20 MeV/c an excess of photons over those expected from hadronic decays is observed. This excess is comparable, within systematic errors, with estimates of direct photons produced via hadronic bremsstrahlung. An upper limit is derived on the presence of additional sources of direct photons at small transverse momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed an endurance test with single-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) under vacuum condition and increased operational parameters (laser current and laser temperature) to accelerate the aging of the lasers. During the endurance test the emitted polarization-dependent and polarization-independent optical light power from the lasers was detected. Additionally, electro-optical characterisations including measurements of the combination of laser current and laser temperature to excite the 87Rb D1 transition (λ = 795 nm), the current and temperature tuning coefficients, laser line width, threshold current and the polarization ellipse were performed for the aged lasers. The test was started with a number of 12 VCSELs consisting of 4 lasers each from 3 different suppliers. The aging behaviour of VCSELs was investigated with respect to the development of a new optical magnetometer prototype for space missions with a mission duration of up to 17 years. Only a limited change of the electro-optical parameters can be tolerated by the instrument design over the mission duration. The endurance test and the electro-optical characterizations revealed clear differences in the aging behaviour of the three suppliers. Lasers from one supplier showed that they can be operated for more than 17 years under vacuum conditions without major degradation of their operational parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]