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).”
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Tag: Lucy Mission
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.”
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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.”
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NASA’s Lucy Mission to Observe Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroid Swarms
CNN reports that the Lucy mission, the first NASA mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid swarms, “has passed all of its prelaunch tests and is set to leave Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at around 5:30 a.m. ET on October 16.” These asteroids “are remnants from the early days of our solar system” and “the mission will help researchers effectively peer back in time to learn how the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.” Tom Statler, Lucy project scientist at NASA Headquarters, said: “With Lucy, we’re going to eight never-before-seen asteroids in 12 years with a single spacecraft. This is a fantastic opportunity for discovery as we probe into our solar system’s distant past.” CNN reports that “the Lucy spacecraft is more than 46 feet (14 meters) from tip to tip, largely due to its giant solar panels – each about the width of a school bus – designed to keep up a power supply to the spacecraft’s instruments.”
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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.
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NASA to Fully Open Lucy’s Solar Array Before it Visits Trojan Asteroids
The Houston Chronicle reports that NASA “wants to fully open Lucy’s solar array before the spacecraft visits the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the sun.” Lucy “is producing enough energy to travel nearly 4 billion miles in 12 years, where it will fly by asteroids that could unlock secrets to the formation of planets in our solar system, but engineers are worried that its unlatched solar array could be damaged when the engine ignites.”
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NASA’s Lucy Probe Beams Back Pictures from Latest Asteroid Flyby
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.”
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