NASA has successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft that will study asteroids around Jupiter. The mission, named Lucy, will last twelve years and will include three years Gravity helps to achieve its goal.
The launch took place on Saturday, at 5:34 a.m. local time and 11:34 a.m. Dutch time. The ULA Atlas V 401 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Lucy orbits the sun and returns in October of next year for a gravitational assist near Earth, followed by another gravitational assist around the Earth in 2024, after which it will actually travel to Jupiter and approach the asteroid DonaldJohansson. This is expected to happen in 2025.
DonaldJohansson’s asteroid is the first stop, followed by the Trojan asteroids. These do not orbit Jupiter, but share the orbit of Jupiter around the Sun. Lucy will meet Lucy for the first time in 2027. After four He flies With Trojans there will be a third increase in attractiveness in 2031 and in 2033 Lucy will take a closer look at Trojans.
NASA Describe Asteroids as “time capsules” since the birth of our solar system more than four billion years ago. Asteroids may be made of the same “primordial matter” as the exoplanets. Although Lucy takes a long time to actually study it, Say Expedition Chief Hal Levison: “These things are worth waiting for and making every effort because of their tremendous scientific value. They are like diamonds in the sky.”
Lucy is the first mission to study Trojans, and according to NASA, no other space mission has had so many different destinations in its own orbits around the sun.
Actual launch will start at 34:40
