AP News reports, “NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has beamed back pictures from its latest asteroid flyby, revealing a long, lumpy, odd-shaped space rock. The space agency released the images Monday, a day after the close approach. It was considered a dress rehearsal for the more critical asteroid encounters ahead closer to Jupiter.”
Full Story (AP News)
Tag: Asteroid
NASA Shuts Down NEOWISE Spacecraft, Closing More than a Decade of Asteroid Observations
Spaceflight Now reports, “A spacecraft that helped bolster planetary defense is now at the end of its operational mission. On Thursday, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California sent the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft into its final hibernation mode by shutting off its transmitter. The command, issued from the Earth Orbiting Missions Operations Center at JPL, brought to an end more than a decade of observations of comets and asteroids that helped further the understanding of celestial bodies that could potentially pose a threat to Earth.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
NASA’s NEOWISE Spacecraft Set to Retire at End of Month
Flying Magazine reports that NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, “has taken millions of infrared measurements and studied tens of thousands of asteroids, comets, stars, galaxies, and other objects.” In late 2024 or early 2025, the spacecraft “is expected to come home in pieces following the conclusion of its second mission later this month.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
NASA’s Lucy Probe to Fire Engines in Space for First Time
SPACE reports that NASA’s asteroid-hopping Lucy mission “is finally getting fired up in space for its trip to the never-before-explored Trojan asteroids, which follow Jupiter as it orbits the sun.” On Wednesday (Jan. 31), the Lucy spacecraft “will fire its main engines off-Earth for the first time since its launch in Aug. 2021.” The firing of Lucy’s main engines “will see the spacecraft burn through around half of its onboard fuel.” This will be “followed by a second, larger maneuver, which NASA says is currently set for Saturday (Feb. 3).” The aim “of these two early 2024 operations is to change Lucy’s velocity by around 2,000 miles per hour (3,217 kilometers per hour).”
Full Story (SPACE)
NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Passes First of 10 Asteroids on Trip to Jupiter
AP reports that on Wednesday, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft “encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey to Jupiter.” The spacecraft “swooped past the pint-sized Dinkinesh, about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars.” It was “a quick hello,” according to NASA, “with the spacecraft zooming by at 10,000 mph (16,000 kph).” Lucy came “within 270 miles (435 kilometers) of Dinkinesh, testing its instruments in a dry run for the bigger and more alluring asteroids ahead.” Dinkinesh is “just a half-mile (1 kilometer) across, quite possibly the smallest of the space rocks on Lucy’s tour.” Lucy’s main targets “are the so-called Trojans, swarms of unexplored asteroids out near Jupiter that are considered to be time capsules from the dawn of the solar system.” The spacecraft “will swing past eight Trojans believed to be up to 10 to 100 times bigger than Dinkinesh.” It’s due to “zip past the final two asteroids in 2033.”
Full Story (Associated Press)
Pew Poll: Americans See Lunar, Mars Missions as Low Priorities for NASA
The Washington Post reports most Americans believe NASA’s top priority should be monitoring asteroids that could strike the Earth instead of returning astronauts to the Moon, according to a poll released Thursday. For respondents in the Pew Research Center survey, only 12 percent of “adults think returning astronauts to the surface of the moon should be NASA’s top priority.” A human landing on “Mars is even less popular: Only 11 percent said it should be the top priority.” By contrast, 60 percent “said monitoring asteroids should be the agency’s top priority; 50 percent said monitoring climate change should be NASA’s top priority.”
Full Story (Washington Post)
NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Will Fly Past its Tenth Asteroid
The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA’s Lucy spacecraft “is adding one more asteroid to its flyby list, bringing its total to 10 and giving scientists a close-up look 17 months sooner than expected.” The spacecraft is “on a 12-year voyage to visit Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun.” These space rocks “could unlock secrets to the formation of planets in our solar system.” Lucy launched in October 2021, “and scientists expected it would reach the first asteroid, Donaldjohanson, in the main asteroid belt in April of 2025.” That was to be “followed by eight Trojan asteroids, some orbiting ahead of Jupiter and some trailing behind, between August 2027 and March 2033.” Now, Lucy will pass roughly “280 miles from a yet-to-be-named asteroid – currently referred to as (152830) 1999 VD57 – in the main asteroid belt on Nov. 1, 2023.” This was added “so Lucy’s team could test the spacecraft’s asteroid-tracking navigation system.” This new system “addresses a problem that had plagued previous flyby missions: it was difficult to determine precisely how far the spacecraft was from the target and which way to point the cameras.”
Full Story (Houston Chronicle)
NASA’s Asteroid-Sampling Mission on Track for Next Year
SPACE reports, “The spacecraft at the center of NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission has altered its trajectory in preparation for its return to Earth next year. On Sept. 21 OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters for 30 seconds for a course correction.” This is the first time the craft has changed course since leaving the space rock on May 10 of last year.
Full Story (SPACE)
DART Mission Successfully Crashes into Asteroid
The Conversation reports that NASA “has crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to push the rocky traveler off its trajectory.” The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully collided into Dimorphos’ center. The image “taken at 11 seconds before impact and 42 miles (68 kilometers) from Dimorphos shows the asteroid centered in the camera’s field of view.”
Full Story (The Conversation)
Video
NASA’s Official Broadcast of DART’s Impact with Asteroid Dimorphos, September 26, 2022
(NASA; YouTube)
NASA Adds Asteroid to Lucy Mission, Confident on Resolution of Solar Array Issue
Spaceflight Now reported that NASA engineers “have made progress in attempts to fully unfurl a solar array wing that snagged on NASA’s Lucy asteroid explorer shortly after launch last October, adding to optimism that the spacecraft can complete its 12-year mission as planned.” Lucy “will fly by eight Trojan asteroids between 2027 and 2033, plus one object in the main asteroid belt in 2025,” one more than was planned when the spacecraft was launched. Scientists “discovered an apparent satellite of Polymele during a ground-based occultation observation in March, when Polymele briefly passed in front of a star, temporarily blocking its light from reaching Earth.” Lucy will collect more information on Polymele’s satellite when it passes by in 2027.
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)