The spacecraft named Lucy has already set off on a 12 years-long mission to examine eight asteroids in the cosmos. Lucy is NASA’s first expedition to Trojan asteroids of Jupiter which departed into outer space on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’ Space Launch Complex 41 at 5:34 a.m. (EDT) on October 16, Saturday. As per a press release issued by NASA, Lucy would fly past one of the main belt asteroids and seven Trojan asteroids during the following 12 years, marking it the first single spaceship expedition of NASA to visit so many distinct asteroids. During its voyage, Lucy will examine those “fossils” of planetary evolution.  

Lucy had detached from the second phase of the ULA Atlas V 401 rocket around an hour following the takeoff. Approximately 30 minutes later, its two huge solar arrays or panels, each 24 feet broad, smoothly unfolded and started charging the batteries of the spacecraft to power its components. About 6:40 a.m., Lucy delivered its first transmission signal to Earth through her own antenna to the Deep Space Network of NASA.  

The path Lucy will follow for the next 12 years

The Press release further read that the spaceship is now flying at a speed of around 108,000 K/H on a course that will take it around the Sun and back to Earth during the estimated October 2022 for gravitational assistance. Lucy’s initial Earth gravitational assistance in 2022 will boost and guide the spacecraft’s course past Mars’ orbit. In 2024, the spaceship will again fly back toward Earth for another gravitational assistance, propelling Lucy into the Donaldjohanson asteroid into the main asteroid belt of the solar system in 2025. 

Lucy will next travel for encountering its first Trojan asteroid in 2027 before meeting Jupiter. Following its first four planned fly missions, the spaceship would return to Earth in the year 2031 for a third gravitational push, catapulting it into the following swarm of Trojans for a 2033 approach.  

The Lucy mission has been named after a preserved human skeleton from Africa, which is one of the oldest known human relatives. This mission will help scientists to investigate two clusters of Trojan asteroids that encircle the Sun alongside Jupiter. The NASA press release further states that according to scientific data, the Trojan asteroids are leftovers of the material that produced huge planets which are compared with the preserved bones of Lucy changed the knowledge of human development, thus, studying asteroids can provide previously discovered facts about the creation and the history of the solar system.

(Image: AP)