{"id":10926,"date":"2021-10-06T18:51:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T10:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-lucy-asteroid-mission-10-days-from-launch\/"},"modified":"2021-10-06T18:51:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T10:51:30","slug":"nasas-lucy-asteroid-mission-10-days-from-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-lucy-asteroid-mission-10-days-from-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Lucy asteroid mission 10 days from launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_53652\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53652\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53652\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0010large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0010large.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0010large-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0010large-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0010large-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53652\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s Lucy spacecraft is prepared for encapsulation last month inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 launcher. Credit: NASA\/Ben Smegelsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fueled up for a 12-year mission of exploration, NASA\u2019s Lucy science probe is nearly ready for launch Oct. 16 from Florida\u2019s Space Coast to begin a journey through the solar system to visit eight asteroids, a record number for a single spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>Ground teams completed testing of the Lucy spacecraft last month inside a climate-controlled clean room at the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, a few miles from the gates to NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n<p>The tests capped a two-month campaign at Astrotech since the Lucy spacecraft arrived from its Lockheed Martin factory in Colorado. Technicians loaded hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants into the probe to feed its small maneuvering thrusters and main engine, which will help steer Lucy toward its asteroid targets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLucy is done, and we\u2019re ready to fly,\u201d said Hal Levison, the mission\u2019s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, or SWRI, in Boulder, Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>The $981 million mission will be the first to explore a population of asteroids called the Trojans, which orbit the sun ahead of and behind Jupiter.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists believe the Trojan asteroids represent a diverse sample of the types of small planetary building blocks left behind after the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.&nbsp;Lucy will fly by eight different asteroids from 2025 through 2033, including seven in the Trojan swarms.<\/p>\n<p>The 3,300-pound (1,500-kilogram) Lucy spacecraft is scheduled for launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket Oct. 16 during a 75-minute window opening at 5:34 a.m. EDT (0834 GMT). The mission has 23 days to blast off and take advantage of a unique alignment between Earth and the asteroids in the outer solar system.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j-qEfPmfpF0\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If something prevents launch this year, NASA has a backup opportunity to launch Lucy in October 2022 without any impact to the mission\u2019s science goals.<\/p>\n<p>But the launch campaign has run smoothly in Florida, and officials overcame hurdles associated with the COVID-19 pandemic to keep Lucy on schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pandemic hit us a really inopportune time,\u201d said Arlin Bartels, Lucy\u2019s deputy project manager at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. \u201cIt hit right when the instrument teams were just getting into their fabrication and into their testing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver 400 components go into the spacecraft. We were still in the supply chain phase at that point. Planetary launch periods are very unforgiving in the best of circumstances because everything has to come and hit per schedule,\u201d Bartels said. \u201cTrying to do that during a pandemic like this is a very daunting situation, and I\u2019m not sure that everyone, when the pandemic hit, thought we would be able to see this through on time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But engineers finished assembling the spacecraft, attached its three science instruments, completed construction of the probe\u2019s fan-shaped solar arrays, and put Lucy through a battery of tests to ensure it will survive the rigors of launch and deep space operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not working anything on the spacecraft or the launch vehicle that concerns any of us at this moment,\u201d said Omar Baez, NASA\u2019s launch director for the Lucy mission.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, United Launch Alliance completed a countdown dress rehearsal at Cape Canaveral. The launch team loaded kerosene, liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen propellants into the Lucy mission\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket, verifying the launch vehicle and ground systems are ready for the real countdown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe came out of that test Friday evening in good shape, so the vehicle is ready to accept the encapsulated Lucy spacecraft,\u201d Baez said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cSo we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53653\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53653\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53653\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0071large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0071large.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0071large-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0071large-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/KSC-20210930-PH-JBS01_0071large-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53653\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida, ground teams prepare to encapsulate NASA\u2019s Lucy spacecraft inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 launcher. Credit: NASA\/Ben Smegelsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While ULA tested the Atlas 5 rocket last week, workers in the Astrotech payload processing facility encapsulated the Lucy spacecraft inside the Atlas 5\u2019s nose shroud. The aerodynamic fairing will shield the probe during final pre-launch preps, and protect the craft during the first few minutes of the climb into space.<\/p>\n<p>The 13.8-foot-diameter (4.2-meter) payload fairing, produced by ULA in Harlingen, Texas, is emblazoned with the Lucy mission logo. The insignia features a pictorial illustration of the fossilized remains of a human ancestor, called Lucy by the scientists who discovered her in Ethiopia in 1974.<\/p>\n<p>The Lucy skeleton became the namesake for the Lucy asteroid mission.<\/p>\n<p>Like the fossil discovery informed scientists about human evolution, the Trojan asteroids could provide clues about the solar system\u2019s ancient history. After Jupiter formed and settled into its current orbit, the asteroids became trapped in swarms, each centered on a gravitationally-stable libration point ahead of and behind the solar system\u2019s biggest planet.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy, the fossil, received its name after scientists heard the Beatles song \u201cLucy In The Sky With Diamonds\u201d while celebrating the discovery. Scientists developing the Trojan asteroid explorer saw the connection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese asteroids really are like diamonds in the sky in terms of their scientific value for understanding how the giant planets formed and the solar system evolved,\u201d Levison said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat fossil transformed our understanding of hominid evolution, just like we hope that the Lucy spacecraft will transform our understanding of solar system,\u201d said Cathy Olkin, mission\u2019s deputy principal investigator from SWRI.<\/p>\n<p>NASA selected the Lucy mission, along with another asteroid explore named Psyche, for development in 2017. Psyche is scheduled to launch next year to orbit a metal-rich asteroid.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers believe the Trojan asteroids are the leftovers from the earliest period of the solar system\u2019s history, when similar small objects clumped together to form the gas and ice planets of the outer solar system.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36841\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36841\" style=\"width: 679px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-36841\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/trojans_nolabels-2.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"679\" height=\"679\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36841\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">During the course of its mission, Lucy will fly by seven Jupiter Trojan asteroids. This time-lapsed animation shows the movements of the inner planets (Mercury, brown; Venus, white; Earth, blue; Mars, red), Jupiter (orange), and the two Trojan swarms (green) during the course of the Lucy mission. Credit: Astronomical Institute of CAS\/Petr Scheirich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf all this story is true, and Lucy is going to test some of these hypotheses, these objects really do represent objects that formed throughout the outer solar system, and are now in the Trojan swarms, where a mission like Lucy can go and study them,\u201d Levison said.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists know little about the Trojan asteroids. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to ever fly through the Trojan swarms, where researchers have found more than 7,000 small objects. There may be thousands more awaiting discovery using large telescopes.<\/p>\n<p>But even the Hubble Space Telescope can\u2019t resolve details about the composition and appearance of the Trojan asteroids. Scientists have a rough approximation of the size of each object to be visited by Lucy, and know a bit about their colors. Some are gray, and some are more reddish in appearance.<\/p>\n<p>After blasting off from Cape Canaveral, the Lucy spacecraft will spend a year in an orbit around the sun similar to Earth\u2019s, before returning to its home planet next October for a gravity assist slingshot maneuver to begin heading out into the solar system.<\/p>\n<p>A second flyby of Earth in December 2024 will send Lucy toward its first asteroid encounter. The spacecraft will speed past asteroid Donaldjohanson, named for the scientist who discovered the Lucy&nbsp;fossil, in April 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Then Lucy will fly into the first Trojan swarm, visiting five asteroids \u2014 including a tiny moon of one of the objects \u2014 in just 15 months between August 2027 and November 2028.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53654\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53654\" style=\"width: 1400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53654\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/lucy_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"924\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/lucy_2.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/lucy_2-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/lucy_2-678x447.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/lucy_2-768x507.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Lucy spacecraft is seen Sept. 29 between the two halves of the Atlas 5 rocket\u2019s payload fairing. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At its most distant arc, Lucy will be more than 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) from the sun. The spacecraft will be the farthest spacecraft from the sun to ever rely on solar power.<\/p>\n<p>A final swing by Earth in 2030 will set up Lucy for the last encounter of the 12-year mission, a flyby of a binary pair of asteroids named Patroclus and Menoetius in March 2033. Each of the two objects are about the same size, with diameters of more than 60 miles (100 kilometers), making them the largest targets of Lucy\u2019s solar system sojourn.<\/p>\n<p>At each asteroid, Lucy will have just hours to take the best pictures and gather the most useful data. The probe will zip by the asteroids at a relative velocity of several miles per second, using a gimbaling instrument platform to point its camera and science instruments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLucy is a flyby mission, so after spending years traveling more than a billion miles to get to our targets, we aim almost directly at them, flying within 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) of their surfaces,\u201d said Keith Noll, NASA\u2019s project scientist for the Lucy mission. \u201cAnd Lucy doesn\u2019t slow down for these flybys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s Lucy spacecraft is prepared for encapsulation last month inside the payload shroud of its Atlas 5 launcher. Credit: NASA\/Ben Smegelsky Fueled up for a 12-year mission of exploration, NASA\u2019s Lucy science probe is nearly ready for launch Oct. 16 from Florida\u2019s Space Coast to begin a journey through the solar system to visit eight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}