Visualizations by
Kel Elkins
Released on September 28, 2021
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.