Written by Amira Shehata Sunday, October 22, 2023 08:00 AM NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is preparing to deliver the first… A close look at an asteroidOn November 1, it will fly near the Dinkenish asteroid and test its devices in preparation for visits in the next decade to many asteroids that orbit the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter.
According to the Phys website, Dinkenish, which is less than half a mile or one kilometer across, orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Lucy had been visually tracking Dinkenish since September 3; It will be the first of 10 asteroids that Lucy will visit on her 12-year journey, and to observe this large number of asteroids, Lucy will not stop or orbit the asteroids, but rather will collect data as they speed past them in what is called a “flyby.”
“This is the first time Lucy has gotten a close look at an object that Dinkenish is about to reveal to humanity for the first time,” said Hal Levison, Lucy’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute.
The primary goal of the Lucy mission, which was launched on October 16, 2021, is to survey Jupiter’s asteroids, a group of small, never-before-explored objects that orbit the sun in two swarms that lead and follow Jupiter on its path.
However, before Lucy reaches the asteroids, it will fly by another major asteroid belt in 2025 called Donald Johansson to conduct additional on-board tests of the spacecraft’s systems and procedures.
During the flyby of Dinkenish, the team will test its terminal tracking system, which will allow the spacecraft to independently determine the location of the asteroid, keeping it within the instruments’ field of view throughout the encounter.
Since this encounter is intended to test Lucy’s systems, scientific observations will be simpler than those of the mission’s main objectives.
The spacecraft and the platform carrying the instruments will move into position two hours before closest approach to Dinkenish. Once the spacecraft is in place, it will begin collecting data using the high-resolution camera (L’LORRI) and the thermal infrared camera (L’TES).
