LUCY(BY NASA ) : THE FIRST MISSION TO THE TROJAN ASTEROIDS

Lucy is a NASA space probe that will go to eight different asteroids over the course of a 12-year voyage, stopping at a main-belt asteroid as well as eight Jupiter trojans, asteroids that circle the Sun either ahead of or behind Jupiter. All encounters with targets will be fly-by encounters. The Lucy spacecraft is the focal point of a mission worth US$981 million.

Lucy and the Psyche expedition were selected as NASA’s Discovery Program missions 13 and 14, respectively, on January 4, 2017.

Because the study of Trojans could reveal the “fossils of planet formation”: materials that clumped together in the early history of the Solar System to form planets and other bodies, the mission is named after the Lucy hominid skeleton. The Australopithecus was named after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which was released in 1967.

LUCY:

Lucy spaceship traveling past the Trojan asteroid 617 Patroclus and its binary companion Menoetius, as imagined by an artist. Lucy will be the first mission to investigate Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which are old outer solar system leftovers.

NAMES: Discovery Mission 13

MISSION TYPE: Multiple flybys of Asteroids

OPERATOR: NASA Goddard -SwRI

MISSION DURATION: 12 YEARS (Planned )

SPACECRAFT: LUCY

MANUFACTURER: Lockheed Martin

LAUNCH MASS: 1,500KG (3,300 Ib)

LAUNCH DATE : 16 OCT. ,2021 ,5:34 am ,  09:34 UTC

ROCKET: Atlas V 401 (AV-096)

LAUNCH SITE: CAPE  CANAVERAL,SLC-41

CONTRACTOR: United Launch Alliance (ULA)

DEVELOPMENT :

Lucy was chosen by NASA through the Discovery Program AO, which was revealed on November 5, 2014. Lucy was submitted in response to a call for proposals for the Discovery Program’s next mission(s) that concluded in February 2015. By the end of 2021, proposals had to be ready to go. In total, twenty-eight proposals were received.

Lucy was chosen as one of five finalist missions on September 30, 2015, each receiving US$3 million to conduct more in-depth concept design studies and assessments. DAVINCI, NEOCam, Psyche, and VERITAS were among the other contenders.

Lucy and Psyche were chosen for development and launch on January 4, 2017.

Lucy will launch in October 2021 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle, NASA said on January 31, 2019. The launch is expected to cost US$148.3 million in total. SpaceX contested the contract award on February 11, 2019, alleging that it could launch Lucy into the same orbit for “much less money.” SpaceX withdrew its protest on April 4th, 2019.

Lucy cleared its Key Decision Point-D (KDP-D) on August 28, 2020, giving the spacecraft and its instruments the “green light” to assemble and test. On October 26, 2020, the first of the spacecraft instruments, L’LORRI, arrived. The spacecraft was carried to Florida on a C-17 cargo plane on July 30, 2021, for launch preparations, and Lucy was encapsulated into the rocket fairing on September 30, 2021. Lucy’s 23-day launch window begins on October 16, 2021, and the spacecraft will fly past an asteroid for the first time in April 2025.

TARGETS :

The spacecraft has made a number of flybys.

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