Called after the popular Australopithecus fossil “Lucy,” the spacecraft will make two slingshot trips around Earth prior to heading towards a cluster of asteroids that share Jupiters orbit, called the Trojan asteroids. We believe the Trojan asteroids are some of the earliest pieces of the development of our solar system– we call them fossils of the solar system. The Trojan asteroids are special since at Jupiters distance most of the early chemistry is still literally frozen in time as it would have been at the beginning of our solar system. And that last swing-by of the Earth will put it on a course out towards the Trojan asteroids. A: I began studying the Trojan asteroids myself back in the 1980s– in truth, the very first paper I released on Trojan asteroids was with an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) trainee.
Lucy will be the first spacecraft to study Jupiters Trojan Asteroids. Like the objectives namesake– the fossilized human forefather, “Lucy,” whose skeleton offered unique insight into mankinds advancement– Lucy will transform our knowledge of planetary origins and the development of the solar system.
Cathy Olkin 88, PhD 96, who received her bachelors degree from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and her doctorate degree from the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), is second-in-command as the deputy principal detective on the mission. While she was busy preparing the spacecraft for launch, job scientist Richard Binzel, teacher of planetary sciences in EAPS with a joint visit in AeroAstro, explained the objectives of the Lucy objective.
Q: What are the roots of the Lucy mission? And how long has it required to get to this moment?
The story goes back many years, trying to comprehend these items out at the range of Jupiter that we call the Trojan asteroids. Theyre asteroids that are stuck in a gravitational tug of war between the sun and Jupiter itself at what we call the Lagrange points, where the gravitational pull of the sun is equivalent to the gravitational tug of Jupiter. We believe the Trojan asteroids are some of the earliest pieces of the formation of our solar system– we call them fossils of the solar system.
MIT Professor Richard Binzel is a researcher on the Lucy objective. Credit: Courtesy of Richard Binzel
We believe the Trojan asteroids date back to the really beginning of our solar system 4.56 billion years ago, which is older than any sample we can get from the Earth and any sample weve ever revived from the moon. By studying the Trojan asteroids, we believe we will be taking a look at some of the earliest pieces of the foundation of worlds.
Q: What are a few of the exceptional questions that the Lucy objective expects to assist respond to?
A: We would like to understand what the chemistry of the early solar system, particularly the organics, was like. The Trojan asteroids are special because at Jupiters range many of the early chemistry is still actually frozen in time as it would have been at the beginning of our solar system.
We believe the earliest forms of water may be protected in these items. As soon as an object in area comes in close to the sun, about the Earths range, any water present starts to vaporize. But we think the Trojan asteroids have actually been cold enough that the original water they may include is still there, frozen, undamaged, and all set for us to explore and assess.
Cathy Olkin 88, PhD 96, a graduate of both the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, is the deputy principal detective of the Lucy mission. Credit: Photo through Cathy Olkin/Twitter
Q: What will the spacecrafts life look like from launch till it finishes its objective?
A: Lucy is on an amazing race course throughout the planetary system to check out the Trojan asteroids.
About a year from now, it will visit the Earth to select up a bit of speed. And after that it does another Earth swing-by in late 2024. And that last swing-by of the Earth will put it on a course out towards the Trojan asteroids. We need to develop speed and momentum to get that far away, so we utilize Earths gravity to help.
We will be out in the asteroid belt by 2025. We will go by a little asteroid called “Donald Johanson.” Donald Johanson discovered the Lucy Australopithecus fossil, and when an MIT graduate student discovered this unnamed asteroid on our flight course, we were able to get it named after him.
Then, when we pass by Donald Johansen in the main belt, we will lastly reach the Trojan asteroid six years from now, in August 2027. We are in among the clouds of Trojan asteroids. These are in orbit, 60 degrees in front, and 60 degrees in the back of Jupiter. And well be in the leading group of Trojan asteroids, something we call the L4 Lagrange point, in 2027. We have two encounters in 2027, a 3rd encounter in April 2028, and a fourth encounter in November 2028. And then in 2030, we swing back around the Earth, to go to the opposite of Jupiter. We get to the cloud on the other side of Jupiter in 2033.
If you look at a map of the trajectory of the Lucy spacecraft, it is on a wild and insane flight to get to both sides of Jupiter over the next 13 years or so.
Each of these objects resembles a time capsule. And we d like to see simply how far back each time capsule is pressing our understanding and understanding of how the Earth and planets happened.
This diagram highlights Lucys orbital course. After launch in October 2021, Lucy has two close Earth flybys prior to encountering its Trojan targets.
Q: How do you feel about this launch after a lot of years of studying the Trojan asteroids and getting ready for this mission?
A: I started studying the Trojan asteroids myself back in the 1980s– in fact, the first paper I published on Trojan asteroids was with an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) student. Its nearly surreal to think that we could go from seeing these things as tiny points of light through a telescope to exposing them as genuine geological and geophysical worlds. It takes a whole profession to go from telescopic identifies to genuine, concrete items.
Through imaging and spectral mapping, NASAs Lucy objective will provide researchers the first close-up view of the topography and chemical composition of the Trojan asteroids, which might offer insights into the chemistry of the early planetary system. Credit: NASA
Task researcher Professor Richard Binzel discusses NASAs newest interplanetary objective, which is co-led by Cathy Olkin 88, PhD 96.
On October 16, NASAs Lucy spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, starting a 12-year, almost 4-billion-mile objective to explore a few of the earliest objects in the planetary system. Called after the famous Australopithecus fossil “Lucy,” the spacecraft will make 2 slingshot trips around Earth before heading towards a cluster of asteroids that share Jupiters orbit, called the Trojan asteroids. These are believed to be nearly as old as the planetary system itself.
Through imaging and spectral mapping, the spacecraft will offer scientists the first close-up view of the topography and chemical composition of the Trojan asteroids, which could provide insights into the chemistry of the early solar system, how the planets formed, and the origin of the natural molecules that make it possible for life.