ESA Lets People Plan and Execute JUICE Spacecraft Missions in New Video Game

The ESA's JUICE probe is unveiled for media in Toulouse, southwestern France on January 20, 2023, a few days ahead of its departure to Kourou space center. Gamers can experiment with launching the JUICE probe themselves in Jundroo’s Juno New Origins game.

The ESA's JUICE probe is unveiled for media in Toulouse, southwestern France on January 20, 2023, a few days ahead of its departure to Kourou space center. Gamers can experiment with launching the JUICE probe themselves in Jundroo’s Juno New Origins game. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

The real-life JUICE mission will be the first to study Jupiter’s moons with such a high amount of detail.

Over the years, NASA has been one of the most innovative federal agencies when it comes to using video games to educate the public about space, promote its missions and foster a curiosity about STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—subjects in young people. The agency has even developed quite a few video games on its own and maintains a webpage where people can find and play them.

Beyond just making games for the public to play, the agency has also tapped into video game technology for various aspects of training, such as using simulations to teach astronauts how to perform medical procedures on space missions. And it is even using advanced game-like technology, like virtual reality, to experiment with how to train astronauts for future missions, like going to Mars. So, it seems like NASA might be the undisputed king of video games as far as federal agencies go.

But now, another competitor—really a friendly rival or even a collaborator—from overseas is also getting into video games in a big way to support an important mission. The European Space Agency recently launched its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer—or JUICE—mission, which over the next several years will study three of Jupiter's Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Those moons may have vast hidden oceans, so they could be teaming with alien life. And even if they don’t house any native species, they could still eventually become a waypoint, stopover or even a good colony spot to support future human space exploration.

Beyond the fact that the JUICE mission will be the first to study Jupiter’s moons in so much depth is the equally impressive feat of navigating a highly challenging flight path to get the spacecraft to Jupiter. To conserve fuel and increase how quickly the spacecraft can reach Jupiter, it will need to perform a series of complex gravity assist actions to gain momentum. It will do this by performing slingshot maneuvers around Venus and the moon, as well as making three gravity assist passes of Earth. Once transferred to Jupiter’s orbit, it will need to perform several other complex maneuvers in order to effectively position itself and study each of the targeted moons. It’s expected to be able to begin its actual scientific mission in October of 2029.

All of that would make for a great video game, which is why the ESA decided to team up with game developer Jundroo to make that happen. Unlike many of the NASA games, which the agency develops in-house, the ESA instead decided to partner with Jundroo because they already have one of the most advanced rocket ship simulation games on the market. Called Juno New Origins, the game challenges players to found their own aerospace company. But beyond just being a business simulation, Juno is also packed with realistic physics that lets players design and ultimately launch their own rocket ships and other spacecraft.

For example, players can adjust and configure their spacecraft or rocket engines just like real scientists and engineers would, changing things like the combustion pressure, fuel types, gimbal ranges, nozzle performance, power cycles or almost anything else. Once your masterpiece is complete, you can fly the new rocket in a realistic simulation to see if it’s able to set new standards for space travel, or spectacularly crash and burn—either of which can be equally fun at times.

With such a robust and established platform, it was smart for ESA to partner with an already established game. Players now have access to the JUICE spacecraft and its Ariane V rocket in sandbox mode, so they can modify things as much as they like to try and make improvements. I learned a lot about launching spaceships just playing with that part of the simulation, like how rockets need to make gravity turns when launching to build up linear speed so that they can break orbit—they can’t just go straight up into space.

But the heart of the JUICE mission in the game is a complex simulation where players are tasked with trying to get the JUICE spacecraft to visit the moons that it needs to study using the shortest flight path and the least amount of expended energy. That also means pulling off those impressive slingshot moves around Earth, the moon and Venus just to get JUICE heading towards Jupiter in the first place. Players will need to plan fuel burns, manipulate and deploy solar panels, tweak expected flight paths, calculate how to best enter and ride gravity wells, and generally do everything that the flight engineers at the ESA have likely been working on for many years.

I would like to say that I discovered a more efficient way to get JUICE to Jupiter. Sadly, I did not. In fact, I crashed it more times than not. But I did learn a lot about space travel, planetary physics and how challenging it is to try and successfully explore our solar system. Plus, it was interesting to see the fruits of a successful private and government partnership involving video games, something that NASA might explore as an alternative in the future to having to develop most of their gaming content in-house.

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.