Lead image caption: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Lucy spacecraft aboard is seen at Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
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An early morning launch is prepared for the Lucy spacecraft, the very first space objective to study Jupiters Trojan asteroids. Tomorrow, October 16 at 5:34 a.m. EDT is the very first day and time in Lucys 21-day launch window, and existing weather conditions show a 90% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Lucy, named after the fossilized human forefather, “Lucy,” whose skeleton offered special insight into humankinds evolution– will be the first spacecraft to check out 8 various items. Researchers hope the Lucy mission will transform our understanding of planetary origins and the formation of the Solar System.
A morning launch is planned for the Lucy spacecraft, the first space mission to study Jupiters Trojan asteroids. Tomorrow, October 16 at 5:34 a.m. EDT is the first day and time in Lucys 21-day launch window, and current weather reveal a 90% opportunity of beneficial conditions for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch window stays open for 75 minutes.
Lucy will embark on a 12-year mission to explore the “fossils of planet development,” Jupiters Trojan asteroid swarms. This mission supplies the first chance to observe these appealing objects close-up.
Lucy, called after the fossilized human forefather, “Lucy,” whose skeleton offered unique insight into humanitys advancement– will be the first spacecraft to visit 8 various things. Researchers hope the Lucy objective will transform our knowledge of planetary origins and the development of the Solar System.
Illustration of the Lucy spacecrafts orbit around Jupiter, which will allow it to study its Trojan population. Credit: SwRI
The Trojan asteroids, which borrow their name from Greek folklore, orbit the sun in two swarms– one ahead of Jupiter and a second swarm that drags it.
The Trojans “are held there by the gravitational impact of Jupiter and the sun, so if you put a things there early in the planetary systems history, its been stable permanently,” stated Hal Levison, the primary detective of the Lucy mission, throughout an interview on October 13. “These things really are the fossils of what worlds formed from.”
Both the mission and the fossil are a homage the Beatles tune “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” and you can see the logo for the Lucy mission is formed like a diamond.
Lucy objective logo design. Credit: SWRI
Over 12 years, Lucy will take a trip nearly 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) moving at about 400,000 miles per hour (17,881.6 meters per second).
The seven Trojan asteroids Lucy will go to are all called for heroes from Homers “The Iliad”: Eurybates, Queta, Polymele, Leucus, Orus, Patroclus. However the first asteroid flyby will be in 2025, as the spacecraft checks out the asteroid belt in between Mars and Jupiter, flying past an asteroid called (52246) Donaldjohanson, called after the innovator of the popular Lucy fossilized skeleton.