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ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons
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By NASA
Flight Engineer Joe Acaba works in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module on the International Space Station, setting up hardware for the Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) experiment. Joe Acaba Space missions rely on cryogenic fluids — extremely cold liquids like liquid hydrogen and oxygen — for both propulsion and life support systems. These fuels must be kept at ultra-low cryogenic temperatures to remain in liquid form; however, solar heating and other sources of heat increase the rate of evaporation of the liquid and cause the pressure in the storage tank to increase. Current storage methods require venting the cryogenic propellant to space to control the pressure in fuel tanks.
NASA’s Zero Boil-Off Tank Noncondensables (ZBOT-NC) experiment is the continuation of Zero Boil-Off studies gathering crucial data to optimize fuel storage systems for space missions. The experiment will launch aboard Northrop Grumman’s 23rd resupply mission to the International Space Station.
When Cold Fuel Gets Too Warm
Even with multilayer insulation, heat unavoidably seeps into cryogenic fuel tanks from surrounding structures and the space environment, causing an increase in the liquid temperature and an associated increase in the evaporation rate. In turn, the pressure inside the tank increases. This process is called “boil-off” and the increase in tank pressure is referred to as “self-pressurization.”
Venting excess gas to the environment or space when this process occurs is highly undesirable and becomes mission-critical on extended journeys. If crew members used current fuel storage methods for a years-long Mars expedition, all propellant might be lost to boil-off before the trip ends.
NASA’s ZBOT experiments are investigating active pressure control methods to eliminate wasteful fuel venting. Specifically, active control through the use of jet mixing and other techniques are being evaluated and tested in the ZBOT series of experiments.
The Pressure Control Problem
ZBOT-NC further studies how noncondensable gases (NCGs) affect fuel tank behavior when present in spacecraft systems. NCGs don’t turn into liquid under the tank’s operating conditions and can affect tank pressure.
The investigation, which is led out of Glenn Research Center, will operate inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the space station to gather data on how NCGs affect volatile liquid behavior in microgravity. It’s part of an effort to advance cryogenic fluid management technologies and help NASA better understand low-gravity fluid behavior.
Researchers will measure pressure and temperature as they study how these gases change evaporation and condensation rates. Previous studies indicate the gases create barriers that could reduce a tank’s ability to maintain proper pressure control — a potentially serious issue for extended space missions.
How this benefits space exploration
The research directly supports Mars missions and other long-duration space travel by helping engineers design more efficient fuel storage systems and future space depots. The findings may also benefit scientific instruments on space telescopes and probes that rely on cryogenic fluids to maintain the extremely low temperatures needed for operation.
How this benefits humanity
The investigation could improve tank design models for medical, industrial, and energy production applications that depend on long-term cryogenic storage on Earth.
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Biological & Physical Sciences Division
NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomenon under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth.
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By NASA
Explore This Section Overview Science Science Findings Juno’s Orbits Spacecraft People Stories Multimedia JunoCam Images Jupiter hosts the brightest and most spectacular auroras in the Solar System. Near its poles, these shimmering lights offer a glimpse into how the planet interacts with the solar wind and moons swept by Jupiter’s magnetic field. Unlike Earth’s northern lights, the largest moons of Jupiter create their own auroral signatures in the planet’s atmosphere — a phenomenon that Earth’s Moon does not produce. These moon-induced auroras, known as “satellite footprints,” reveal how each moon interacts with its local space environment.
Juno capturing the marks on Jupiter of all four Galilean moons. The auroras related to each are labeled Io, Eur (for Europa), Gan (for Ganymede), and Cal (for Callisto). NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/UVS team/MSSS/Gill/Jónsson/Perry/Hue/Rabia Before NASA’s Juno mission, three of Jupiter’s four largest moons, known as Galilean moons — Io, Europa, and Ganymede — were shown to produce these distinct auroral signatures. But Callisto, the most distant of the Galilean moons, remained a mystery. Despite multiple attempts using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Callisto’s footprint had proven elusive, both because it is faint and because it most often lies atop the brighter main auroral oval, the region where auroras are displayed.
NASA’s Juno mission, orbiting Jupiter since 2016, offers unprecedented close-up views of these polar light shows. But to image Callisto’s footprint, the main auroral oval needs to move aside while the polar region is being imaged. And to bring to bear Juno’s arsenal of instruments studying fields and particles, the spacecraft’s trajectory must carry it across the magnetic field line linking Callisto and Jupiter.
These two events serendipitously occurred during Juno’s 22nd orbit of the giant planet, in September 2019, revealing Callisto’s auroral footprint and providing a sample of the particle population, electromagnetic waves, and magnetic fields associated with the interaction.
Jupiter’s magnetic field extends far beyond its major moons, carving out a vast region (magnetosphere) enveloped by, and buffeted by, the solar wind streaming from our Sun. Just as solar storms on Earth push the northern lights to more southern latitudes, Jupiter’s auroras are also affected by our Sun’s activity. In September 2019, a massive, high-density solar stream buffeted Jupiter’s magnetosphere, briefly revealing — as the auroral oval moved toward Jupiter’s equator — a faint but distinct signature associated with Callisto. This discovery finally confirms that all four Galilean moons leave their mark on Jupiter’s atmosphere, and that Callisto’s footprints are sustained much like those of its siblings, completing the family portrait of the Galilean moon auroral signatures.
An international team of scientists led by Jonas Rabia of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), CNRS, CNES, in Toulouse, France, published their paper on the discovery, “In situ and remote observations of the ultraviolet footprint of the moon Callisto by the Juno spacecraft,” in the journal Nature Communications on Sept. 1, 2025.
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Last Updated Sep 02, 2025 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is on track for its gravity-assist flyby at Venus on 31 August, following the successful resolution of a spacecraft communication anomaly that temporarily severed contact with Earth.
The issue, which emerged during a routine ground station pass on 16 July, temporarily disrupted Juice’s ability to transmit information about its health and status (telemetry).
Thanks to swift and coordinated action by the teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, and Juice’s manufacturer, Airbus, communication was restored in time to prepare for the upcoming planetary encounter.
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By NASA
6 min read
NASA, IBM’s ‘Hot’ New AI Model Unlocks Secrets of Sun
This image from June 20, 2013 shows the bright light of a solar flare and an eruption of solar material shooting through the sun’s atmosphere, called a prominence eruption. Shortly thereafter, this same region of the sun sent a coronal mass ejection out into space — a phenomenon which can cause magnetic storms that degrade communication signals and cause unexpected electrical surges in power grids on Earth. NASA’s new heliophysics AI foundation model, Surya, can help predict these storms. NASA/Goddard/SDO NASA is turning up the heat in solar science with the launch of the Surya Heliophysics Foundational Model, an artificial intelligence (AI) model trained on 14 years of observations from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Developed by NASA in partnership with IBM and others, Surya uses advances in AI to analyze vast amounts of solar data, helping scientists better understand solar eruptions and predict space weather that threatens satellites, power grids, and communication systems. The model can be used to provide early warnings to satellite operators and helps scientists predict how the Sun’s ultraviolet output affects Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Preliminary results show Surya is making strides in solar flare forecasting, a long-standing challenge in heliophysics. Surya, with its ability to generate visual predictions of solar flares two hours into the future, marks a major step towards the use of AI for operational space weather prediction. These initial results surpass existing benchmarks by 15%. By providing open access to the model on HuggingFace and the code on GitHub, NASA encourages the science and applications community to test and explore this AI model for innovative solutions that leverage the unique value of continuous, stable, long-duration datasets from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Illustrations of Solar Dynamics Observatory solar imagery used for training Surya: Solar coronal ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and solar surface velocity and magnetic field maps from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). NASA/SDO The model’s success builds directly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s long-term database. Launched in 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has provided an unbroken, high-resolution record of the Sun for nearly 15 years through capturing images every 12 seconds in multiple wavelengths, plus precise magnetic field measurements. This stable, well-calibrated dataset, spanning an entire solar cycle, is uniquely suited for training AI models like Surya, enabling them to detect subtle patterns in solar behavior that shorter datasets would miss.
Surya’s strength lies in its foundation model architecture, which learns directly from raw solar data. Unlike traditional AI systems that require extensive labeling, Surya can adapt quickly to new tasks and applications. Applications include tracking active regions, forecasting flare activity, predicting solar wind speed, and integrating data from other observatories including the joint NASA-ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission and NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.
“We are advancing data-driven science by embedding NASA’s deep scientific expertise into cutting-edge AI models,” said Kevin Murphy, chief science data officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By developing a foundation model trained on NASA’s heliophysics data, we’re making it easier to analyze the complexities of the Sun’s behavior with unprecedented speed and precision. This model empowers broader understanding of how solar activity impacts critical systems and technologies that we all rely on here on Earth.”
These images compare the ground-truth data (right) with model output (center) for solar flares, which are the events behind most space weather. Surya’s prediction is very close to what happened in reality (right). These preliminary results suggest that Surya has learned enough solar physics to predict the structure and evolution of a solar flare by looking at its beginning phase. NASA/SDO/ODSI IMPACT AI Team Solar storms pose significant risks to our technology-dependent society. Powerful solar events energize Earth’s ionosphere, resulting in substantial GPS errors or complete signal loss to satellite communications. They also pose risks to power grids, as geomagnetically induced currents from coronal mass ejections can overload transformers and trigger widespread outages.
In commercial aviation, solar flares can disrupt radio communications and navigation systems while exposing high-altitude flights to increased radiation. The stakes are even higher for human spaceflight. Astronauts bound for the Moon or Mars may need to depend on precise predictions to shelter from intense radiation during solar particle events.
The Sun’s influence extends to the growing number of low Earth orbit satellites, including those that deliver global high-speed internet. As solar activity intensifies, it heats Earth’s upper atmosphere, increasing drag that slows satellites, pulls them from orbit, and causes premature reentry. Satellite operators often struggle to forecast where and when solar flares might affect these satellites.
The “ground truth” solar activity is shown on the top row. The bottom row shows solar activity predicted by Surya. NASA/SDO/ODSI IMPACT AI Team “Our society is built on technologies that are highly susceptible to space weather,” said Joseph Westlake, Heliophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters. “Just as we use meteorology to forecast Earth’s weather, space weather forecasts predict the conditions and events in the space environment that can affect Earth and our technologies. Applying AI to data from our heliophysics missions is a vital step in increasing our space weather defense to protect astronauts and spacecraft, power grids and GPS, and many other systems that power our modern world.”
While Surya is designed to study the Sun, its architecture and methodology are adaptable across scientific domains. From planetary science to Earth observation, the project lays the foundational infrastructure for similar AI efforts in diverse domains.
Surya is part of a broader NASA push to develop open-access, AI-powered science tools. Both the model and training datasets are freely available online to researchers, educators, and students worldwide, lowering barriers to participation and sparking new discoveries.
The process for creating Surya. Foundation models enhance the utility of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory datasets and create a base for building new applications. NASA/ODSI IMPACT AI Team Surya’s training was supported in part by the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-led initiative that provides researchers with access to advanced computing, datasets, and AI tools. The NAIRR Pilot brings together federal and industry resources, such as computing power from NVIDIA, to expand access to the infrastructure needed for cutting-edge AI research.
“This project shows how the NAIRR Pilot is uniting federal and industry AI resources to accelerate scientific breakthroughs,” said Katie Antypas, director of NSF’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure. “With support from NVIDIA and NSF, we’re not only enabling today’s research, we’re laying the groundwork for a national AI network to drive tomorrow’s discoveries.”
Surya is part of a larger effort championed and supported by NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer and Heliophysics Division, the NSF , and partnering universities to advance NASA’s scientific missions through innovative data science and AI models. Surya’s AI architecture was jointly developed by the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) under the Office of Data Science and Informatics at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; IBM; and a collaborative science team.
The science team, assembled by NASA Headquarters, consisted of experts from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas; the University of Alabama in Huntsville in Huntsville, Alabama; the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado; Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia; Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; NASA’s SMD’s Heliophysics Division; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
For a behind-the-scenes dive into Surya’s architecture, industry and academic collaborations, challenges behind developing the model, read the blog post on NASA’s Science Data Portal:
https://science.data.nasa.gov/features-events/inside-surya-solar-ai-model
For more information about NASA’s strategy of developing foundation models for science, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/artificial-intelligence-science
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Last Updated Aug 20, 2025 Related Terms
Science & Research Artificial Intelligence (AI) Heliophysics Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) The Sun The Sun & Solar Physics Explore More
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By NASA
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov aboard in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber The first crew to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program completed the agency’s 10th commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Saturday.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov returned to Earth at 11:33 a.m. EDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the crew will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and reunite with their families.
“Splashdown! Crew-10 is back on Earth from the International Space Station marking the completion of another successful flight,” said NASA acting Administrator Sean Duffy. “Our crew missions are the building blocks for long-duration, human exploration pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. NASA is leading the way by setting a bold vision for exploration where we have a thriving space industry supporting private space stations in low Earth orbit, as well as humans exploring the Moon and Mars.”
The agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission lifted off at 7:03 p.m. on March 14, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About 29 hours later, the crew’s SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port at 12:04 a.m. on March 16. Crew-10 undocked at 6:15 p.m. Aug. 8, to begin the trip home.
During their mission, crew members traveled nearly 62,795,205 million miles and completed 2,368 orbits around Earth. The Crew-10 mission was the first spaceflight for Ayers and Peskov, and the second spaceflight for McClain and Onishi. McClain has logged 352 days in space over her two flights, and Onishi has logged 263 days in space during his flights.
Along the way, Crew-10 contributed hundreds of hours to scientific research, maintenance activities, and technology demonstrations. McClain, Ayers, and Onishi completed investigations on plant and microalgae growth, examined how space radiation affects DNA sequences in plants, observed how microgravity changes human eye structure and cells in the body, and more. The research conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory advances scientific knowledge and demonstrates new technologies that enable us to prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
McClain and Ayers also completed a spacewalk on May 1, relocating a communications antenna, beginning the installation of a mounting bracket for a future International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, and other tasks. It was the third spacewalk for McClain, the first for Ayers, and the 275th supporting space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
Crew-10’s return to Earth follows the Crew-11 mission, which docked to the station on Aug. 2 for its long-duration science expedition.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program provides reliable access to space, maximizing the use of the International Space Station for research and development, and supporting future missions beyond low Earth orbit, such as to the Moon and Mars, by partnering with private U.S. companies, including SpaceX, to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
-end-
Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones / Joseph Zakrzewski
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov / joseph.a.zakrzewski@nasa.gov
Steven Siceloff
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 09, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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