Lucy Mission Overview: Journey to Explore the Trojan Asteroids

NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of unexplored asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit. Lucy made a picture-perfect launch on October 16, 2021, but when the spacecraft began to unfurl its solar arrays, it encountered an anomaly. One of the arrays failed to fully deploy and latch shut, putting the mission at risk. For months, Lucy’s flight operations team worked meticulously to address the issue and put Lucy back on its solar-powered journey to the Jupiter Trojans.Learn more about the effort to address Lucy’s solar array anomaly. Shortly after Lucy launched, one of its solar arrays failed to fully deploy, putting the mission at risk. Complete transcript available.Universal Production Music: “Hypervelocity” by Sophy Olivia PurnellWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/main/index)

Lucy is the first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit, leading and trailing the giant planet by sixty degrees. These primitive bodies are thought to be the “fossils” of planet formation, trapped by Jupiter’s gravity at the dawn of the solar system. Now, NASA is sending Lucy on a winding, twelve-year-long path to visit one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojans. Lucy will provide the first up-close look at these mysterious objects, helping scientists to better understand the evolution of the solar system.Learn more about Lucy’s path to eight asteroids.Asteroid Ryugu imagery provided by: JAXA Hayabusa 2 Explore Lucy’s journey to one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojans.Complete transcript available.Universal Production Music: “Ocean Simulation” “Tale of Time” by Markus GleissnerWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/main/index)

12 Years, 8 Asteroids, 1 SpacecraftCountdown Is On For The Launch Of NASA’s Bold Mission To Explore Ancient AsteroidsFossils of the solar system: On October 16, NASA will launch LUCY, the first-ever mission to a mysterious group of asteroids that are pristine “fossils” of our solar system. Trojan asteroids are remnants of the ancient material that formed the outer planets some 4.5 billion years ago! Named after characters in Greek mythology, these asteroids circle the Sun in two swarms, with one group leading ahead of Jupiter in its path, the other trailing behind it. Lucy will visit an unprecedented eight asteroids during its epic journey.Lucy’s name is a nod to the famous 3.2 million year old “Lucy” skeleton that helped scientists piece together human evolution. Just as the Lucy fossil changed our understanding of human evolution, this Lucy in the sky will revolutionize our understanding of the Solar System’s origins. Lucy is the first spacecraft to visit this group of asteroids, and it’ll also be the first probe to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system when it swings back to adjust course.Fun Fact: Each of the two groups of Trojan asteroid swarms are as far away from Jupiter as Jupiter is from the Sun! Fun Fact: When the Lucy spacecraft flies into the sky on Oct 16, it will be carrying a 3.98 gm, or 19.9 carat, diamond with it. This manufactured diamond (1-mm thick and 38 mm in diameter) serves as the beamsplitter for Lucy Launch Operations Lead. Transcript available under the download option. TRT 5:22 For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/main/index](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/main/index)