Lucy, Discovery Mission 13 - a grand tour of the Jupiter Trojans |
Lucy, Discovery Mission 13 - a grand tour of the Jupiter Trojans |
Jan 4 2017, 08:20 PM
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#1
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 71 Joined: 12-December 16 Member No.: 8089 |
Obligatory new thread for the Lucy mission, now that it has been selected by NASA to launch as Discovery mission 13! Lucy will launch in 2021, and will perform a flyby of a main belt asteroid in 2025, before making flybys of at least six Jupiter trojans from 2027 to 2033. The mission, led by the Southwest Research Institute and Principal Investigator Harold F. Levison, will send a spacecraft carrying updated versions of New Horizons' LORRI and RALPH instruments.
Be sure to check out r/lucymission on reddit as well! EDIT: I have made a mistake. Could a kind mod please move this thread to the "Cometary and Asteroid Missions" subforum? ADMIN: Done. Note for the new members: Generally speaking, please consult a member of the admin/mod team before creating new topics. Not a hard rule, but it does help to keep the place tidy. Also, we encourage all members to review this welcome post for orientation purposes. Thanks! |
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Jan 10 2017, 10:56 AM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 43 Joined: 31-May 05 From: Bloomington, Minnesota Member No.: 397 |
Very excited for this mission. I'm a sucker for seeing new worlds, and I didn't realize Patroclus-Menoetius was a target for Lucy until it was selected. And so many others, too!
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Apr 6 2019, 05:56 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 723 Joined: 13-June 04 Member No.: 82 |
This new paper on arXiv suggests that Jupiter formed past Neptune and then migrated inwards to its current orbit, sweeping up the Jupiter Trojan asteroids with it. They make a compelling case, that explains the otherwise inexplicable asymmetry between the leading and trailing Trojan clouds.
This would mean that there is an incredible compositional diversity within the Trojans, due to their origins ranging from the inner Kuiper belt to the location of the current Hilda asteroids. So the Lucy mission has the opportunity to visit bodies originating throughout the middle and outer solar system, which makes it even more important for understanding the history of the solar system. |
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Oct 24 2019, 01:07 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 544 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
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Jan 10 2020, 12:50 AM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2106 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Cool news a satellite discovered around one of the flyby targets!
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-lucy-mi...bates-satellite |
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Aug 17 2021, 04:56 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1592 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
Turns out Lucy might get pretty darn close to said Satellite:
https://twitter.com/plutokiller/status/1401894522859122694 (Tweets from June) Lucy scheduled for Launch in October. |
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Sep 20 2021, 12:30 AM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2542 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
Some open-access papers about the Lucy mission here: https://iopscience.iop.org/issue/2632-3338/2/5
-------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Oct 14 2021, 10:00 PM
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#8
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 48 Joined: 8-August 12 Member No.: 6507 |
Lucy launch is only 2 days away. We are now powered for the last time and this AM moved to the pad at LC41 and looking at a nice early AM launch on 10/16 (0934 UTC, 0534 EDT) with great weather forecasat. Hope everyone is going to get up early with us for launch. There was a very good pre-launch press briefing yesterday that is on YouTube (sorry for all the commercials I could not find any alternate hosting sites,YouTube video link). Hope you have a chance to watch the launch live (or after getting up for those in the US). I have seen some questions on forums such as reddit asking what propulsion elements Lucy has (All of the following info is not export controlled so I can provide these answers here). We have eight 1 N and six 22 N mono-propellant thrusters for ACS and the majority of the trajectory correction maneuvers (up to 50 m/sec). For larger burns we have a 470 N bi-propellant main engine (Leros 1C). The propellants are hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide. There are currently 4 burns over 7 years that will use our main engine. We won't need to use that engine till mid 2024 (large DSM to target Earth for an Earth flyby). Go Lucy!!!
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Oct 15 2021, 01:56 AM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 3-December 04 From: Boulder, Colorado, USA Member No.: 117 |
Some of us here are on the science team too- happy to (attempt to) answer any science questions.
At the Cape, trying to type with fingers crossed! John |
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Oct 15 2021, 02:36 AM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2106 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Sure, we really appreciate it, having representatives from both side of the mission coin on here!
Having watched the briefing from earlier; will the geometry of the Earth flybys allow for some great (colourful) views for L'LORRI (or even during commissioning)? LORRI on New Horizons never looked back at Earth even to this day.... |
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Oct 15 2021, 02:50 AM
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#11
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 3-December 04 From: Boulder, Colorado, USA Member No.: 117 |
Imaging the Earth will likely be done for calibration, but we might have saturation issues, so don’t yet know how pretty the pictures will be. The moon will also likely be a calibration target and less likely to saturate. The geometry will depend on our launch date, so we’ll know soon!
John |
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Oct 15 2021, 03:22 AM
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#12
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Member Group: Members Posts: 205 Joined: 14-April 06 From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 745 |
Watched the Science Press Conference today. Excited to follow this mission.
GO LUCY!!! |
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Oct 15 2021, 04:11 PM
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#13
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Member Group: Members Posts: 544 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
Hmmm. Since this Atlas launch will be without any SRBs, a couple of shock diamonds might be just barely visible in the far end of the exhaust of the rocket.
If so, I can think of a caption for that photo ... |
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Oct 16 2021, 06:04 AM
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#14
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Hoping to keep my eyes open long enough to watch the launch tonight.
GO LUCY!!! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Oct 16 2021, 01:47 PM
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#15
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2106 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Go up early to watch the launch! Beautiful! All the best to the team, and looking forward to the first images!
1 year to Earth flyby.... |
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