NASA’s ‘Lucy’, which will explore the ‘Trojan Asteroid Group’ around Jupiter and explore eight asteroids that have never been visited before, was launched into space on the 16th (local time). Foreign media recently reported.
■ One hour after launch, the solar panel was successfully deployed
Lucy was launched on the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket from the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida at around 6 pm on the 16th. This launch is the 100th launch from the Cape Canaveral launch site, and about 58 minutes after launch, the Lucy spacecraft detached from its stage 2 rocket booster and began its long journey into Jupiter’s orbit.
About an hour after launch, the Lucy spacecraft experienced “20 minutes of horror” by spreading a 7-meter-wide decagonal solar panel in space. 91 minutes after launch, Lucy received a signal that the solar panel had been properly placed, the researchers said. “Everything was great today,” said Omar Baez, senior director of NASA’s launch program.
These solar panels will power Lucy’s 12-year space journey. The amount of power supplied by the solar panel is 500W, and when Lucy arrives at the destination, it is expected to become a spaceship powered by sunlight from the farthest from the Earth.
■ Exploration of ‘Trojan Asteroid’ to reveal the secrets of the early days of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago
Over the next two years, Lucy will fly toward Jupiter in a gravity-assisted flight accelerated by Earth’s gravity, then explore the Trojan asteroid group. Trojan Asteroid is an asteroid located at the Lagrangian point of Jupiter’s orbit, and there are about 7000 asteroids orbiting it, the largest of which is known to be about 250 km in diameter.
Trojan asteroids include asteroids, primordial pieces of rock that existed in space before the planets of the solar system were formed. NASA calls the Trojan asteroid a ‘time capsule of the birth of the solar system’, and it is expected that many insights into the early history of the solar system can be obtained because they retain the appearance of the early solar system.
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Lucy will approach eight different asteroids and study the asteroid’s surface with an infrared imager and camera. Lucy will perform her first mission by approaching the Donald Johansson asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in April 2025. Afterwards, from August 2027, the first 7 Trojan asteroids orbiting the same orbit of Jupiter will be explored for the first time.
Alan Duffy, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, said: “No spacecraft has ever visited so many places.
