NASA’s Lucy spacecraft prepares for its first asteroid flyby

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is getting ready for its initial close-up encounter with an asteroid named Dinkinesh on November 1st. The spacecraft will test its instruments during this flyby as it prepares for future visits to multiple Trojan asteroids in the next decade.

Dinkinesh is a small asteroid, less than half a mile wide, that orbits the sun in the main belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Lucy has been monitoring Dinkinesh since September 3rd and it will be the first of 10 asteroids that Lucy plans to visit during its 12-year mission. Instead of stopping or orbiting the asteroids, Lucy will collect data as it passes by them in a “flyby.”

The primary objective of the Lucy mission is to survey the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, which are a population of small bodies that orbit the sun in two swarms that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit. But before reaching the Trojan asteroids, Lucy will also have a flyby of another main belt asteroid called Donaldjohanson in 2025 for additional in-flight tests.

During the Dinkinesh flyby, the team will test the spacecraft’s terminal-tracking system, which will allow it to autonomously locate the asteroid and keep it within the field of view of its instruments. The scientific observations during this encounter will be simpler compared to the mission’s main targets. The spacecraft will collect data using its high-resolution camera and thermal-infrared camera, and it will track the asteroid using the terminal-tracking system.

Lucy’s closest approach to Dinkinesh is expected to occur at 12:54 p.m. EDT on November 1st, when the spacecraft will be within 270 miles of the asteroid. It will continuously image and track Dinkinesh for almost an hour before reorienting itself to resume communications with Earth. The captured data will be used not only for engineering tests but also to gain insights into the relationship between larger main belt asteroids and smaller near-Earth asteroids.

After the Dinkinesh encounter, the Lucy spacecraft will continue its orbit around the sun and return to Earth’s vicinity for a second gravity assist in December 2024. This will propel it back to the main asteroid belt for a flyby of the asteroid Donaldjohanson in 2025, before heading towards the Jupiter Trojan asteroids in 2027.

For more information about NASA’s Lucy mission, visit the official NASA website.