Moscow. October 16. INTERFAX.RU – The American spacecraft Lucy, which will help uncover the secrets of the origin of the solar system, starts on Saturday with a mission to study the so-called Trojan asteroids near the planet Jupiter, NASA reports.
Scientists believe that these small celestial bodies, moving around the Sun in the same orbit as the planet, are remnants (fossils) of the primordial protoplanetary material from which the solar system was formed.
The launch will be carried out using the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from the SLC-41 launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome in Florida during the time window from 05:34 to 06:49 US East Coast time (from 12:34 to 13 : 49 Moscow time).
The spacecraft weighing 1.5 tons will study two large groups of Trojan asteroids, which can provide data on the initial period of formation and evolution of the planets of the solar system.
“This is a unique opportunity for discovery as we explore the distant past of our solar system,” said Tom Statler, research scientist for the Lucy project at NASA.
Asteroids have been in their pristine state since the beginning of the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Lucy will fly as close as possible to asteroids in order to study the geology, chemistry and physics of these bodies in the solar system.
The mission of the apparatus with a length of 6.3 billion km will last 12 years. Lucy will only conduct research during encounters with asteroids. All his scientific workload consists of means of remote observation. No descent modules and soil fences are expected. The scientific instruments of the probe will allow obtaining detailed images of the surface of asteroids, determining their mass, properties and composition of the surface layer, including the presence of water ice and organic matter.
The first flight of the device past the Trojan asteroid near Jupiter is expected on April 20, 2025, and in 2033 the last one. In total, the probe will study eight asteroids.
The cost of the mission is estimated at $ 981 million.
