The rocket launched on Saturday at 11:34 CEST (5:34 local time), Lucy is set to be the first solar-powered probe to move so far from the Sun. Its twelve-year mission will cost $ 981 million (21 billion crowns). In addition, it is the first interplanetary probe this year.
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“Each of the observed asteroids will publish part of the history of our solar system, our history,” Thomas Zurbuchen, director of NASA’s science division, told a news conference.
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58 minutes after takeoff, Lucy’s interplanetary spacecraft separated from the upper Centaur stage and set out on its own.
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The lock does not click
However, the Lucy probe is already facing a minor problem.
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The Lucy probe is having a minor problem. The control sensor reports that one lock on the panel of the photovoltaic cells does not click after its disassembly. However, both generate electricity. A joint NASA-manufacturer team is analyzing the situation. Other probe subsystems work well. pic.twitter.com/4EYVYah2cF
– Michal Vaclavik (@Kosmo_Michal) October 18, 2021
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“The control sensor reports that one lock on the photovoltaic cell panel does not click after it has been unfolded. However, both generate electricity. A joint NASA-manufacturer team is analyzing the situation. The other subsystems of the probe work well, “astronomy specialist Michal Václavík from the Czech Space Agency and the Prague CTU pointed out on his Twitter on Monday.
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7000 trojans
After two gravitational assists in October 2022 and December 2024, the spacecraft is scheduled to arrive on April 20, 2025, the first asteroid on its journey – 52246 Donaldjohanson. It is due to reach the last two asteroids in 2033. The largest of them measures an average of 95 kilometers. According to the AP, these asteroids are considered “untouched remnants of a planetary formation.”
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The Lucy camera is supposed to approach them at a distance of 400 to 950 kilometers at a speed of 24,000 km / h. The entire “roundabout” of the probe is to be 6.3 billion km long.
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The AFP agency wrote that there are about seven thousand Trojans, as the asteroids orbiting Jupiter are called. They orbit the Sun in two groups, one in front of and the other behind Jupiter.
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“What is most surprising about the Trojans is how they differ from each other, especially in color – some are gray, others red. We think that color indicates where they come from, “said Hal Levison, the mission’s chief researcher. His group wants to study the geological composition of asteroids, the exact volume and density of the matter that makes them up.
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“Let’s put a diamond on Lucy”
The probe was named after the skeletal finding of a female Australopithecus in Ethiopia in 1974. Those who found it were listening to a Beatles song called Lucy in the sky with diamonds at the time.
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“We’ll put a diamond on Lucy,” Phil Christensen, who controls one of Lucy’s diamond devices, said before the probe was launched. It will measure infrared light, which will allow you to determine the temperature on the surface of asteroids.
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“We will compare measurements taken during the day and at night. In this way, we will be able to determine whether the surface is made of stone or of fine dust and sand, “Christensen added. The stone cools down more slowly than sand in the dark.
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