ESA’s ‘Juice’ mission to study Jupiter’s moons is ready for its second launch.

After Thursday’s effort to send its mission into space failed, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would try again on Friday to send its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (called “Juice”) into space.

The launch could not happen on Thursday because there was lightning over the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Juice is going to Jupiter to look at its moons, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa, and do research on them. People think that the moons have a lot of water on them. Scientists are also getting hints about whether or not they could have life.

Jupiter is very far away and very cold. It only gets one-twentieth of the light that falls on Earth.

Scientists could assume from the way Jupiter’s gravity pulls on its three moons that they might have enough energy and heat to support simple ecosystems, like the ones that live near volcanic vents on Earth’s ocean floors.

Professor Emma Bunce of Leicester University in the UK, who works on the mission, told BBC, “It’s thought that Europa has a deep ocean, maybe 100 km deep, under its ice shell.”

“This ocean is 10 times deeper than the deepest ocean on Earth, and we think it’s touching a hard floor. So that sets up a situation where things mix and some interesting science can happen, the professor said.

The mission is set to take off at 13:14 BST, which is 9:14 in Kourou. The Juice is 6 tons heavy.

The Ariane rocket will take the mission into the sky, and it must be off the ground when the computers say it must be.

The spaceship won’t be sent to Jupiter’s moons by the rocket Ariane. But it will send the spaceship on a path that will take it around the inner part of the Solar System.

After passing by Venus and Earth, the mission will be pushed toward its final location by the force of gravity. The trip is 6.6 billion kilometers long, which is about 8.5 years. It is predicted that the Jovian system will arrive in July 2031.

The project won’t land on the moons. Instead, it will study them from afar. Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system, is Juice’s final goal.

In 2034, it would end its trip by going into orbit around the Earth.

Radars will be used to study the moons, and lidar lasers will be used to make 3D pictures of their surfaces. Magnetometers will study the moons’ complex electrical and magnetic environments, and other devices will gather information about the particles that move around the moons.

Juice’s job is to find out if the planet is habitable so that other missions can keep looking into it.

Scientists are already thinking about how to land on a moon that is frozen and drill through its crust to get to the water below.

Researchers use heat to drill hundreds of meters through the ice sheet in Antarctica so they can put submersibles in places where the ocean is frozen over.

It would be hard to do the same kind of work on a moon of Jupiter, where the ice cap could be tens of kilometers thick.

Along with Juice, NASA is also sending the satellite Clipper. Even though it won’t start until 2024, Clipper will get there before Juice. The rocket that powers NASA’s satellite is much more powerful and is aimed at Europa.

Prof. Carole Mundell, the ESA’s head of science, told BBC, “There is a lot of overlap, and the teams are very eager to work together.” She also said, “There will be a lot of data.” But first, we have to make sure our projects get to Jupiter and run safely.”