It ’s been a year since NASA establish itsLucy spacecrafton a mission to Jupiter ’s Trojan asteroids . On Sunday , Lucy will flourish hello to Earth for the first clip during a legal brief , but potentially dangerous , rendezvous . In the unlikely event of a collision , the missionary post squad has set maneuvers to protect the space vehicle from satellites and blank junk .
Lucy ’s first flyby of Earth will place the space vehicle a mere 220 mile ( 350 klick ) above the surface , according to a NASAstatement . That ’s closer than the 254 nautical mile ( 408 kilometers ) that single out the International Space Station from the earth . NASA say this layer of low Earth orbit is pack with more than 47,000 planet , quad debris , and other objects spin chop-chop around our major planet , and therefore not a very safe spot for a lonesome ballistic capsule .
To protect Lucy , NASA engineer have been analyzing the space vehicle ’s chances of a hit in the week before the planned flyby . It might seem like they ’re cut it close , but the nearer the collision assessment is to the flyby , the upright the accuracy of the prevision . “ The further you ’re predicting into the future , the more changeable you are about where an physical object is go to be , ” Dolan Highsmith , chief locomotive engineer for the Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis group at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center , said in the statement .
An illustration of the Lucy spacecraft flying past one of the Trojan asteroids.Illustration: NASA
The team is strain to predict the position of the Lucy spacecraft during the flyby , as well as the place of the surrounding objects . Where these physical object will be in the future also depends on the Sun ’s activity . Our hotshot chuck out plasma and radioactivity into space , increasing the density of the atmosphere and tugging on space vehicle , which causes them to slow down .
The collision appraisal squad will send Lucy ’s attitude to the Space Force ’s eighteenth Space Control Squadron , which monitor object in low-pitched Earth orbit . The squad is prepared to perform swerving tactical manoeuvre if Lucy has more than a 1 in 10,000 chance of colliding with another target . “ With such a mellow note value foreign mission , you really need to verify that you have the capability , in case it ’s a forged day , to get out of the way , ” Highsmith said .
Lucy ’s navigation engineers have prepare two play in pillowcase the spacecraft call for to move out of the way , altering the time of close approach with another physical object by either two or four seconds . “ This is a pocket-size correction , but it is enough to deflect a potentially catastrophic hit , ” Coralie Adam , Lucy surrogate navigation team chief from KinetX Aerospace , said in astatement . The two maneuvers require locomotive burns to quicken up the spacecraft as it swings past Earth , travel at a speed of about 8 miles ( 12 kilometre ) per second .
The flyby will be Lucy ’s first gravitational help , using Earth to position the spacecraft on a new trajectory beyond the orbit of Mars . Lucy wo n’t be visible to observers from Earth before its planned flyby since it will appear to be approaching our planet from the direction of the Sun . But on October 16 at around 6:55 a.m. ET , Lucy will be seeable for people in Western Australia before ducking behind Earth ’s shadow . The spacecraft will reappear again at 7:26 a.m. ET , where observers in the western United States may be able-bodied to take in a glimpse of Lucy using binoculars , according to NASA . During its flyby , Lucy will take pictures of Earth and the Moon . These image will aid mission scientists calibrate Lucy ’s cat’s-paw .
The new trajectory will aim Lucy on a two - year orbit around the Sun , at the ending of which Lucy will return to Earth for yet another gravity assistance . From there , Lucy will still have about three age to go before reaching its first target , asteroid Donaldjohanson . afterwards in August 2027 , Lucy will begin its Trojan circuit by impose Eurybates and its binary partner Queta , followed by Polymele and its binary partner , Leucus , Orus , and the binary pair Patroclus and Menoetius .
The Trojan asteroid are two swarms of rocky bodies that orbit the Sun , one go ahead of Jupiter and another trailing behind . These outer space rocks are hold in a gravitative balancing human activity between Jupiter and the Sun and are believed to be the remnants of the primordial material that formed the out satellite . Lucy will be the first ballistic capsule to visit the Trojans , potentially unlocking the mystery of how the solar system ’s extinct major planet formed billions of years ago .
“ The last time we saw the spacecraft , it was being enclosed in the cargo fair in Florida , ” Hal Levison , Lucy principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute ( SwRI ) , said in a assertion . “ It is exciting that we will be able to stand here in Colorado and see the space vehicle again . And this prison term Lucy will be in the sky . ”
More : Astronomers Chase Shadows From Jupiter ’s Mysterious Trojan Asteroids
Discovery ProgramFlybyMinor planetsNASASpacecraftSpaceflight
Daily Newsletter
Get the skillful technical school , skill , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
