Mission engineers will continually track NASA’s Lucy spacecraft as it prepares to swing by Earth on October 16 for a gravity assist. This will allow it to use this planet’s gravity to gain some of the orbital energy and set itself on a course toward the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. However, that's n
are trapped in orbits around the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit these remnants from the early solar system, helping scientists hone their theories on how the planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they ended up in their current configuration.
When Lucy comes nearest to Earth for its first gravity assist it will cruise 220 miles above the surface. That’s lower than the altitude of the space station and low enough that the spacecraft will be visible with the naked eye from western Australia for a few minutes starting at 6:55 p.m. local time . On its way down, Lucy will fly through the most crowded layer of Earth’s orbit, which is monitored by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron.
Determining the positions of spacecraft, plus orbiting satellites and debris, is challenging, particularly when trying to anticipate the future. Largely that’s because the Sun plays a major role in pulling or pushing objects around, and future solar activity is hard to predict. For example, the Sun’s activity — how muchand radiation it shoots out — affects atmosphere density, and thus how much friction will tug on a spacecraft and slow it down.
“With such a high-value mission, you really need to make sure that you have the capability, in case it’s a bad day, to get out of the way,” Highsmith said.
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