Lucy (spacecraft)

Lucy is a NASA space probe on a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids. It will visit a main belt asteroid as well as seven Jupiter trojans.   They will be fly-by encounters. The Lucy spacecraft is the part of a US$981 million mission. Lucy is a special space mission. It's going to explore some small rocks called Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These rocks are leftovers from when our solar system was forming. They're stuck in orbits near Jupiter, but not too close. There are lots of these asteroids, and they come in two groups that move ahead of and behind Jupiter as it goes around the Sun. Scientists think there are as many Trojans as there are asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

 Path of Lucy 
Lucy's job will last for 12 years. It will visit more asteroids than any other mission before. First, it will check out two asteroids that circle the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, and also a new satellite. Then, it will visit eight Trojans, including five asteroids and the satellites of three of them. Lucy will also swing by Earth three times to use its gravity to help it move, which no other spacecraft has done from as far away as the outer solar system.

 Flyby Date 
+Dinkinesh     Nov. 1, 2023unnamed satelliteNov. 1, 2023DonaldJohansonApril 20, 2025Eurybates 
and its satellite Queta Aug. 12, 2027Polymele
and its unnamed satelliteSept. 15, 2027LeucusApril 18, 2028Orus Nov. 11, 2028Patroclus and its satellite
Menoetius March 3, 2033

References

Category:NASA spacecraft