Space observers hoping to get a glimpse of near-Earth objects like NASA will want to watch the sky this weekend as the Jupiter-bound Lucy rover approaches Earth for its first gravitational aid. Anniversary.
Lucy, launched on 12 October, will exceed 790 km above the Earth on Sunday 16 October.
This means that sky watchers in Northwest Australia should be able to see Lucy with the naked eye for a few minutes between 1055 and 1102 UTC (since 1855 Aust or 2025 ACST).
For those with proper telescopes and in western North America, glimpsing this bird from UTC 1126 (4:26, 5:26, 1:26) after emerging from Earth’s shadow should be possible.
Lead scientist Lucy Hal Levison said, “The last time we saw the spacecraft, it was trapped at a payload fair in Florida. It’s exciting to be here in Colorado and see the spacecraft again.”
Lucy flies into the orbit of the International Space Station, which has heavy satellite traffic, and approaches Earth. To avoid collision, Lucy can be instructed by the controller to perform maneuvers that can adjust her trajectory for two to four seconds. “Simple resolution, but sufficient to avoid a potentially catastrophic collision,” Adam.
One of Lucy’s solar panels was not installed properly, causing the satellite to approach Earth for about 30 miles, but those plans have changed, said Rich Burns, project manager for Lucy at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Lucy’s near-Earth flight plan was close enough that NASA had to take into account atmospheric drag, which would be even worse if the solar panels were loosened.
“We chose to use some of the fuel supply so that the spacecraft passed above the Earth at a slightly higher altitude, reducing turbulence due to atmospheric drag on the spacecraft’s solar panels,” Barnes said.
This initial gravitational aid puts Lucy in a two-year orbit around the sun, but it’s still not enough to send the spacecraft to its final destination, Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid. As such, Lucy will return in 2024 for a second gravity-assisted mission before becoming the first mission to see space rocks outside our system’s asteroid belt.
The mission of 12-year-old Lucy, who is one year old, will merge with an asteroid in her belt before heading to the Trojan horse which shares its orbit around the sun with Jupiter.
Lucy will go through six Trojans, collect data, and return to Earth in 2030 for a third gravitational aid. Her last flight encounters a pair of binary asteroids in a swarm of Trojans that Lucy is looking for, but the first of six Trojans probes and guides Jupiter around the sun. ®
