South Korea's radio telescopes will be deployed in an international mission to precisely track the position of the European Space Agency's Jupiter probe, JUICE. The observational data to be gathered will be used for joint research and academic papers.
The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute said on the 13th that it is signing a memorandum of understanding to that effect with the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE). JUICE is an ESA probe launched in April 2023 to explore Jupiter's icy moons. Its mission is to investigate whether oceans exist beneath the surface of those moons and whether they offer conditions that could support life.
Under the agreement, the Korean VLBI Network (KVN), operated by the institute, will be used to measure JUICE's position with high precision. The network consists of four radio telescopes, each 21 meters in diameter, located in Seoul, Ulsan, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Pyeongchang.
The measurements rely on very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Radio telescopes far apart from one another receive the same signal, and the minute differences in arrival time are analyzed to determine the spacecraft's position and movement. The technique also allows observation of ultrafine structures in space, such as black holes, active galactic nuclei, and regions where stars are born and die.
The institute plans to broaden the scope of cooperation to include space and planetary science research, technology development and personnel exchanges. "This agreement is significant in that it expands the role of the KVN, which has mainly been used for astronomical observation, into the field of deep-space exploration," said Park Jang-hyun, president of the institute. "We expect it to strengthen the technological foundation for participating in a range of international deep-space exploration missions going forward."