NASA allows the discontinued wing of the Lucy spacecraft to appear – IT Pro – News

NASA also revealed a discontinued solar panel wing for the Lucy spacecraft. There were problems with that before. The organization decided to use both main and backup motors to free a stuck rope.

In a blog post NASA writes How she spent months researching the jammed wing problem and how to solve it. There was a scenario on the table where one ignores the defect because both wings generate more than 90 percent of the spacecraft’s power supply. In the second scenario, the stuck rope will be pulled more forcefully; This is by using both the main motor and the spare motor at the same time.

According to the US space agency, this presents a risk because both engines were not intended to work together. To avoid potential damage, the team began running the tests and once they were finished, it was decided to try pulling the jammed rope. This plan also worked. NASA estimates that the wing is almost fully spread out and subject to sufficient tension to allow the spacecraft to continue its mission stably.

NASA launched In October 2021 Unmanned spacecraft, Lucy. The probe aims to study the asteroid DonaldJohansson and then the Trojan asteroids that share the orbit of Jupiter around the sun. The mission is said to have lasted 12 years. Shortly after launch The US space agency indicated that one of the wings, equipped with solar panels, was not fully exposed.