Girl & Kat

We have not discovered life on K2-18b.

We have not even discovered water on K2-18b.

All we can say is that the planet does not… not… have an ocean.

The SLIM mission is about the launch and head to the Moon! But how is SLIM different from previous lunar landers, and what does the mission plan to achieve?

On March 20, the extraterrestrial curation team pulled off the protective overalls that guard against any Earthly contamination entering the laboratory, and joined leaders of the mission and initial analysis teams in the ISAS Communication Hall. It has been just over two years since the Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned a sample from asteroid Ryugu to Earth. The teams were together to present a summary of the findings to date.

"It’s been 42 years. I had to make sure it was 42, because that’s the answer!"

The JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) is set to embark on an eight year journey to the icy moons of our Solar System’s largest planet. While the moons have been previously observed by Jupiter explorers such as NASA’s Galileo, this is the first time a dedicated mission will visit the moons with an instrument suite targeted at their exploration. JUICE is an ESA-led mission, with strong involvement from Japan in both the instrument development and science teams.