7 Things to Know About NASA’s First Mission to the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids

NASA ’s launch windowpane for the Lucy space vehicle opens during the former hours of Saturday , October 16 . Here ’s what you need to know about this thrilling foreign mission and how you could watch the launch live online .

Lucy is packed and ready to go . The uncrewed space vehicle now sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket , as the science community eagerly await the commencement of this unprecedented mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroid . Fingers hybridize , Lucy will pass the next 12 long time inspect a phonograph record - breaking figure of asteroids , none of which have ever been explored before .

Watch the launch live online

NASA hopes to launch Lucy on Saturday , October 16 , at 5:34 a.m. EDT ( 2:34 a.m. PDT ) . The launching windowpane will persist open until November 5 , give stack of squirm way in case of bad weather condition or other delays . Coverage will start at 5:00 a.m. EDT ( 2:00 a.m. PDT ) , which you may see onNASA Television , theNASA app , or at the embedded telecasting bring home the bacon below .

The Atlas Phoebe rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida . Lucy wo n’t guide directly for the Trojans , as it needs to make two passes of Earth , the first in 2022 and the 2nd in 2024 , for the extra gravitative boost .

Lucy is not actually going to Jupiter

For this $ 981 million deputation , Lucy wo n’t be going anywhere near Jupiter . The Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun in two loose but discernible bunch , one in front of Jupiter ’s orbital path and the other behind . These asteroids are pack together at two Lagrange points , in which the distance to Jupiter and the Sun are approximately equal . The Trojan asteroid are snare in static eye socket and have been that manner for zillion of eld — a very good thing , from a scientific position .

During aninterviewwith NASA , principal police detective Hal Levison from the Southwest Research Institute described the Trojans as the “ fossils of planetary organization . ” The Trojans are the remnant from the earliest days in the solar system , so by consider these primordial object , scientists will comfortably see the physical process that delivered organic cloth and urine to Earth — the introductory building blocks of life .

Named for a fossil

Fittingly , the Lucy spacecraft is name after the famous Australopithecine fossil get in 1974 . As NASAexplains , the ancient skeleton “ provided unique insight into man ’s evolution , ” and similarly , “ the Lucy missionary work will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary blood line and the constitution of the solar system . ” palaeontologist had named the Lucy fogy after the Beatles ’ song , “ Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds , ” construct the ballistic capsule ’s name even more fitting .

More destinations than any other space mission

Lucy has a openhanded job onward , as it will natter one asteroid in the Main Belt between Jupiter and Mars and seven Trojan asteroids . No other space missionary post in history has visited so many celestial objects in self-governing orbits around the Sun .

travel at an average speed of 39,000 miles per minute ( 63,000 km / hr ) , the 52 - foot - long probe will call in asteroid Donaldjohansen in the Main Belt before reach the Trojans . Starting in 2027 , Lucy will visit Eurybates and its binary partner Queta , followed by Polymele , Leucus , Orus , and the binary pair Patroclus and Menoetius . Lucy will go to both Trojan clusters , which are situate 500 million Admiralty mile ( 800 million kilometers ) from the Sun .

Lucy will study three different eccentric of asteroid : C , P , and D. C - type asteroids are common in the outer realms of the Main Belt , while P - type and D - type asteroid are reminiscent of frozen Kuiper Belt object from beyond the orbit of Neptune . All Trojans are consider to incorporate high levels of black carbon compounds and even volume of pee and other volatile chemical compound .

Artist’s depiction of Lucy zipping past a Trojan asteroid.

Artist’s depiction of Lucy zipping past a Trojan asteroid.Image: Southwest Research Institute

Expect hi-resolution photos

Lucy ’s LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager , or L’LORRI , will allow the probe to enchant high - firmness of purpose images of the asteroid . Even at the expect distance of 620 miles ( 1,000 km ) , Lucy should still be able to capture small contingent and features , including elephant - sized craters .

Using its onboard instruments , Lucy will map out the surface geology of each asteroid , study surface composition and color , determine the mass and densities of each object , and expect for previously unseen companions and ring .

Lucy carries messages from humanity

Aspecial plaqueis come along for the drive . In plus to a diagram of our solar organization ’s planets , the brass check messages from key 20th century creative thinker , including Albert Einstein , Martin Luther King Jr. , and Carl Sagan .

Quotes from contemporary writers and poet have also been include , including share from Rita Dove , Joy Harjo , and Amanda Gorman , who read an original verse form during President Joe Biden ’s startup ceremonial occasion . Gorman ’s poem reads as follow :

commemorate the worldly concern whose skin you are : red earth , contraband earth , yellow earth , blank dry land , brown worldly concern , we are earth .

Time-lapse animation showing the movements of the two Trojan clumps (in green) and the inner planets (not to scale).

Time-lapse animation showing the movements of the two Trojan clumps (in green) and the inner planets (not to scale).Image: Astronomical Institute of CAS/Petr Scheirich

Remember the plant , trees , animal life history who all have their tribes , their category , their histories , too .

think you are all citizenry and all people are you . Remember you are this universe and this creation is you .

Remember .

Diagram showing Lucy’s path (in green) as it visits asteroids within the two Trojan clumps.

Diagram showing Lucy’s path (in green) as it visits asteroids within the two Trojan clumps.Image: Southwest Research Institute

A probe for the ages

When the primary commission concludes in 2033 , Lucy will rest in a static ambit around the Sun . The spacecraft will belike remain useable after that , and it may even chatter some more asteroids . But there it will stay , “ passing through the alternating Trojan horde for hundreds of thousands , if not million , of eld , ” according to NASA .

It all starts on Saturday , assuming everything run low well with the launching .

More : A Last - Minute Nuke to Shatter an Incoming Asteroid Could in reality exploit , Study indicate .

Depiction of the seven Trojan asteroids on Lucy’s itinerary.