How NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission will assist inform the story of our photo voltaic system

Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, defined how the company’s Lucy asteroid mission will assist illuminate the photo voltaic system’s formation. 

“The Lucy mission is absolutely thrilling, it is going out to go to these particular asteroids which might be, they orbit the solar at about the identical distance as Jupiter … they usually’re particular remnants which might be in all probability about 4 billion years previous, made up of that materials that made all the planets within the outer a part of the photo voltaic system Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune,” stated Glaze on CNBC’s “The Information with Shepard Smith.” “And so, by finding out these particular asteroids we are able to study extra about what these planets are fabricated from and that entire early story of that a part of the photo voltaic system.” 

The Lucy spacecraft blasted off Saturday from Kennedy House Middle in Florida, and is predicted to journey 4 billion miles by area to fly by and examine Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. Whereas the launch was profitable and the spacecraft is steady, NASA stated on Sunday that one of many spacecraft’s two photo voltaic arrays “will not be totally latched.”

Glaze delivered an replace to host Shepard Smith relating to the Lucy spacecraft’s two large photo voltaic panels. 

“They each deployed, considered one of them we acquired affirmation that it fully deployed and locked into place,” stated Glaze. “The second deployed, however we did not get affirmation that it locked into place, so we’re gathering data now over the following day or so…Hopefully, we’ll be capable to treatment this and repair the scenario however proper now we’re nonetheless in data-gathering mode.”

The Lucy mission, which has a complete value of $981 million, is predicted to go to its first asteroid in 2024. Additional flybys are set to happen till 2033.