Lucy (spacecraft)
Lucy is a NASA space probe on a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids. It will visit a main belt asteroid as well as seven Jupiter trojans.[1][2] They will be fly-by encounters.[3] The Lucy spacecraft is the part of a US$981 million mission.[4] Lucy is a special space mission. It's going to explore some small rocks called Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These rocks are leftovers from when our solar system was forming. They're stuck in orbits near Jupiter, but not too close. There are lots of these asteroids, and they come in two groups that move ahead of and behind Jupiter as it goes around the Sun. Scientists think there are as many Trojans as there are asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Path of Lucy
[change | change source]Lucy's job will last for 12 years. It will visit more asteroids than any other mission before. First, it will check out two asteroids that circle the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, and also a new satellite.[5] Then, it will visit eight Trojans, including five asteroids and the satellites of three of them. Lucy will also swing by Earth three times to use its gravity to help it move, which no other spacecraft has done from as far away as the outer solar system.
Flyby Date[6]
[change | change source]| Dinkinesh | Nov. 1, 2023 |
| unnamed satellite | Nov. 1, 2023 |
| DonaldJohanson | April 20, 2025 |
| Eurybates
and its satellite Queta |
Aug. 12, 2027 |
| Polymele
and its unnamed satellite |
Sept. 15, 2027 |
| Leucus | April 18, 2028 |
| Orus | Nov. 11, 2028 |
| Patroclus and its satellite
Menoetius |
March 3, 2033 |
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Hille, Karl (2019-10-21). "NASA's Lucy Mission Clears Critical Milestone". NASA. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ↑ "Lucy: The First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids". NASA. Archived from the original on 2020-12-06. Retrieved 2021-10-16. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ↑ Chang, Kenneth (6 January 2017). "A Metal Ball the Size of Massachusetts That NASA Wants to Explore". The New York Times.
- ↑ "Watch a video tour of NASA's Lucy asteroid explorer". Spaceflight Now. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
- ↑ Robert Lea (2024-02-06). "NASA's asteroid-hopping Lucy probe heads back toward Earth after acing crucial engine burn". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
- ↑ "Lucy - NASA Science". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
