NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, known for visiting asteroids is set to get fired up in space on January 31 for its next trip to explore Trojan asteroids. Lucy earlier performed a flyby around asteroid Dinky and discovered its twin, and is now getting ready for its new voyage to unexplored cosmic spaces.
Lucy is slated to visit two main belt asteroids as well as six Jupiter Trojans – asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun. Its firing-off on Wednesday will be the first time since its launch in August 2021.
The firing of Lucy’s main engines will see the spacecraft burn through around half of its onboard fuel, as per NASA. This will be followed by a second and much larger manoeuvre, which is slated for Saturday (Feb 3).
NASA’s Lucy to fire off for its future voyages
Lucy will be fired off during two operations to change its velocity for further lined-up missions. The aim is to change its velocity by around 2,000 miles per hour (3,217 kilometres per hour).
The spacecraft had changed its manoeuvres earlier as well, but they were not as significant as the upcoming two manoeuvres.
Over the next week, Lucy will complete two deep space maneuvers to change the spacecraft’s velocity by about 2,000 mph! In Dec., Lucy will use the Earth’s gravity for a 2nd time to slingshot through the main asteroid belt & continue on its journey. https://t.co/Zs9B0lFn8X pic.twitter.com/8W3S8tJuna
— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) January 30, 2024
Following these manoeuvres, the next major milestone for Lucy will be a flyby of Earth in December 2024, at which time the spacecraft will get a second gravity assist from our planet that will hopefully slingshot it onto a new trajectory. Lucy will come as close as 230 miles (370 kilometres) to the Earth during this flyby.
The sequence of manoeuvres planned for 2024 will alter the spacecraft’s trajectory away from its present solar orbit, which closely traverses the primary asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This adjustment helped it encounter the tiny asteroid Dinkinesh, or ‘Dinky’, on 1 November 2023. Notably, Lucy’s exploration revealed that Dinky is, in fact, a binary asteroid system, effectively a double asteroid.
After this, Lucy’s other mission will be to track around Jupiter Trojans. These Trojans are arranged in two loose groups, with one slightly ahead of the gas giant, the Greek camp, and another behind it, the Trojan camp.
Lucy will visit the Greek camp of Trojan asteroids first, setting its sights on the asteroid Eurybates and its satellite or ‘moonlet’ Queta in August 2027, as per NASA.
After this, the spacecraft will fly past another four Trojan asteroids and three more moonlets, eventually making a final visit to Earth in 2031 before the Lucy mission draws to a close in 2033.
(With inputs from agencies)
