Enlarge / A NASA rendering of the Lucy spacecraft earlier than efforts have been made to totally open considered one of its photo voltaic arrays in Could and June. (credit score: NASA)
NASA confirmed this week that its Lucy mission to discover a collection of asteroids has a clear invoice of well being because it approaches a key gravity help maneuver in October.
In a brand new replace, the house company stated Lucy’s photo voltaic arrays are “steady sufficient” for the $1 billion spacecraft to hold out its science operations over the approaching years because it visits a main-belt asteroid, 52246 Donaldjohanson, and subsequently flies by eight Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit across the Solar.
The destiny of the Lucy mission had been in query because the first hours after it launched on an Atlas V rocket final October when considered one of its two massive photo voltaic arrays failed to totally open and securely latch. Every of the arrays was meant to unfurl like a hand fan.
Learn 7 remaining paragraphs | Feedback
