Lucy’s 12-year mission sees Jupiter asteroids looking for solar system data

On July 30, 2021, a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane landed on the tarmac at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Atlas V 401 rocket will take Lucy’s spacecraft into space. Lucy’s mission is dispatched October 16, 2021, a 12 year journey begins.

Lucy’s journey will rotate as far as 6.3 billion km.
The spaceship Lucy’s name is taken from the name of the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of the oldest human. Which was discovered in Ethiopia almost half a century ago.
Immortalized as the name of Lucy’s spacecraft, to unlock the mystery of the origin of our solar system

Before being sent into space, the head of the Nasa team, Thomas Zurbuchen, shook his head at the proposal from the Nasa team.
You’re kidding, this is possible. he said as he recalled the submission of the proposal.
This is the most complicated and winding path

Lucy has to move over a distance of 965km on each target, and the closest is 113km.
It took 12 years for the spacecraft to travel. From side to side in orbit around the planet Jupiter.
The first mission arrived in 2025 and moved to the last mission in 2033.

2021 October 10
After launch, one solar panel failed to lock in place.
But NASA’s team of engineers said it didn’t matter, and the panel worked.

Lucy’s Mission

Lucy prepares for a historic mission to research the origin of the solar system by taking a closer look at some of the largest asteroids.
The content there will be investigated, because asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit are like time capsules. Asteroid rocks are fossils (historical records) in space.

The Lucy spacecraft, designed by the Southwest Research Institute, will be the first to visit a Trojan
asteroid. The Trojan asteroid has an orbit around the sun and shares an orbital trajectory with the planet Jupiter.
The researchers wanted to get a glimpse of the development of the solar system. Lucy’s

mission which lasted for 12 years, the plane will explore a number of asteroids. Fly from one asteroid in the main belt and see 7 asteroids from the Trojan asteroid group.

Trojan asteroids around the planet Jupiter were found in two groups, orbiting with trajectories in the front and back of the planet Jupiter.
Jupiter itself is known as the king planet, because its size is the largest of the 7 other planets.

Researchers predict, the material in the Trojan asteroid to be one of the important historical material and is considered the earliest material when the formation of the solar system.

To reach an orbit around Jupiter, the craft must first back and forth to form a catapult effect.
First fly across to the sun, circle back to Earth 2 times.

Just rolled into the first group. Finished doing research in the first group, Lucy’s plane must fly back to follow the sun’s orbit and arrive at the second group of asteroids.

The main target after arriving and conducting research from the main asteroid belt in 2025
While traveling, in 2025 Lucy’s plane flies past a small belt asteroid named 52246 Donaldjohanson

Main research tasks look at asteroids:
1 Asteroid 3548 Eurybates and its satellites
2 Asteroid 15094 Polymele
3 Asteroids 11351 Leucus
4. Asteroid 1900 Orus between the years 2027–2028

Continuing the journey, the plane will cross into the area of ​​the adjacent asteroid group
Asteroid 617 which is suspected to be the binary asteroid Patroclus-Menoetius in 2033.
If all goes well, Lucy’s spacecraft sets a record in one mission to visit multiple asteroids.

After flying the Patroclus-Menoetius binary in 2033, Lucy will continue to be together between the two Trojan asteroid groups, and may last for at least six years.

Lucy’s plane is quite large, stretching 15 meters with solar panels, and reaching 7 meters wide.
When approaching Jupiter’s orbital trajectory, it is possible for the craft to use power from solar panels.