Lucy in easy words

NASA’s Lucy mission is the first space mission to explore a diverse population of small bodies known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These small bodies are remnants of our early solar system, now trapped on stable orbits associated with – but not close to – the giant planet Jupiter. The Trojan asteroids are in two “swarms” that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun, and are almost as numerous as the objects in the Main Asteroid Belt. Over its twelve-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a recordbreaking number of asteroids, flying by one main belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids. The Lucy mission is named after the fossilized skeleton of an early hominin (pre-human ancestor) that was found in Ethiopia in 1974 and named “Lucy” by the team of paleontologists who discovered it. And just as the Lucy fossil provided unique insights into humanity’s evolution, the Lucy mission promises to revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the Solar System

lucy space craft specs

Spacecraft Specifications:

• Width: 46.75 ft (14.25 m)

• Height: 23.6 ft (7.2 m) or 12.4 (3.8m) when solar panels are stored)

• Depth: 9.12 ft (2.78 m)

• Diameter of Solar Panels: 23.9 ft (7.3 m) • Dry Mass (unfueled): 1810 lbs (821 kg)

• Wet Mass (fueled): 3417 lbs (1550 kg)

• Power: 504 watts at the furthest encounter

When lucy will be launched

Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than Oct. 16, 2021, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Path for lucy

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/internal_resources/5121

NASA’s Lucy mission gets caught in a fight between rocket companies

Lagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put. At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them. These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.