Lucy Mission Trajectory 'Over-the-Shoulder' Views
-
- Visualizations by:
- Kel Elkins
-
- Produced by:
- Dan Gallagher
- View full credits
This visualization is a view from the Lucy spacecraft as it travels through the solar system, represented in a Jupiter-rotating reference frame. In this reference frame, Jupiter appears fixed in space. This visualization spans from launch through the flyby of the main belt asteroid DonaldJohanson. (Part 1 of 3)
Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojans asteroids - two loose groups of asteroids that orbit the Sun, with one group always ahead of Jupiter in its path, the other always behind. These primitive bodies hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system, and perhaps even the origins of life and organic material on Earth.
Lucy will launch in October 2021 and, with boosts from Earth's gravity, will complete a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids — a Main Belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojans, the last two members of a “two-for-the-price-of-one” binary system. Lucy’s complex path will take it to both clusters of Trojans and give us our first close-up view of all three major types of bodies in the swarms (so-called C-, P- and D-types).
These visualizations give an 'over-the-shoulder' view of Lucy as the spacecraft travels through the solar system.
This visualization is a view from the Lucy spacecraft as it travels through the solar system, represented in a Jupiter-rotating reference frame. This is a complete view of the entire mission, combining all three sections (parts 1-3) listed above into one visualization, including all asteroid flybys.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
-
Animators
- Jonathan North (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Michael Lentz (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
-
Visualizer
- Kel Elkins (USRA) [Lead]
-
Engineer
- Brian Sutter (Lockheed Martin)
-
Producer
- Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
Datasets used in this visualization
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.