Lucy is a NASA spacecraft that will travel to the far reaches of our solar system to investigate old asteroids.
An
illustration of the Lucy mission spacecraft passing Trojan Asteroids near
Jupiter. (Image credit: Southwest Research Institute) |
The NASA
Lucy mission is an amazing space mission that needs your attention since it
will examine the solar system's history and disclose more about life on Earth.
According
to NASA, the Lucy spacecraft was launched on October 16, 2021, and it will fly
445 million miles away from Earth to investigate swarms of asteroids that orbit
the sun in two groups — one ahead of Jupiter and the other behind it. They're
known as the Trojan asteroids, and no spaceship has ever visited them.
These
asteroid clusters have been orbiting the Sun for billions of years, and NASA's
pre-mission testing reveal that they're most likely made of the same old stuff
that gave birth to planets like Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn. They're modest in
lunar terms, but they're time capsules that could provide humanity with great
insights into the genesis of the solar system and life.
WHAT’S THE NASA LUCY MISSION PLAN?
The NASA
Lucy mission will fly through Earth on October 15, 2022, and exploit our
planet's gravitational pull in many phases to be thrown towards the Trojan
clusters, according to NASA.
Lucy will
arrive in the main solar system's asteroid belt in April 2025, and between 2027
and 2033, it will study seven different Trojan asteroids. The Lucy mission will
conclude in March 2033. Lucy, on the other hand, isn't going anywhere; it'll
keep orbiting the sun for millions of years.
Lucy was
first proposed by NASA in 2015, and it was selected as a realistic mission in
2017. It began assembly and testing in August 2020, after the first designs
were authorized in 2018. According to NASA's Lucy mission webpage, the final
NASA Lucy spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in July 2021,
ahead of the autumn launch date.
Lucy may
appear to be an unusual name for a space mission, but it is named after a fossilized
skeleton discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. According to Arizona State University,
the fossil is roughly 3 million years old and has taught us a lot about
humanity's evolution. It's a suitable name for a space mission that NASA believes
will lead to comparable interplanetary fossil finds.
WHAT WILL THE NASA LUCY
SPACECRAFT TEST?
With its
array of modern equipment, NASA's Lucy spacecraft will fly past seven Trojan
asteroids and conduct remote testing. According to NASA's Lucy mission webpage,
the geology on the surface of each asteroid will be examined to determine its
age, structure, and form, while other tools will search for minerals, ice, and
organic molecules.
Other
instruments will determine each asteroid's mass and density, as well as map
their internal structures.
Nothing
has ever been found there before, so NASA isn't sure what Lucy will uncover.
However, the mission will provide crucial knowledge regarding the creation of
our solar system, and such research is an important aspect of scientific
discovery.
An
illustration of the orbital path the Lucy mission spacecraft will take. (Image credit: Southwest Research Institute) |
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