Earth  Planets and Moons  ID: 4943

Lucy Mission Trajectory 'Over-the-Shoulder' Views

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.
 

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Visualization Credits

Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC): Lead Producer
Jonathan North (KBR Wyle Services, LLC): Animator
Michael Lentz (KBR Wyle Services, LLC): Animator
Brian Sutter (Lockheed Martin): Engineer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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Data Used:
also referred to as: DE 430
Ephemeris - JPL NAIF
JPL DE 430
Credit:
JPL NAIF
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.

Keywords:
SVS >> Asteroid
NASA Science >> Earth
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
SVS >> Trojan Asteroid
SVS >> Trajectory
SVS >> Lucy