NASA's Lucy, asteroid spacecraft will be launched current week on an ambitious 1

Posted by Kapil on October 20th, 2021

NASA is all ready to launch its next asteroid-bound mission, which will look into the origins of our solar system.

The Lucy spacecraft’s launch window will open on Saturday (Oct. 16). Following launch, the spacecraft will go on a 12-year voyage to the outer solar system, stopping at half a dozen ancient “Trojan” asteroids that orbit Jupiter in the same orbit.

On this ambitious journey, Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit asteroids in this region and the first to sail past Earth from beyond the solar system. Furthermore, the voyage will provide new data to scientists working to learn more about our universe’s early beginnings.

About the types of ASTEROIDS:

The mission will search for three different types of asteroids: C-type (a common ancient asteroid made of clay and silicate), D-type (asteroids with low albedos or reflectivity that may be rich in organic molecules), and P-type (asteroids with low albedos or reflectivity that may be rich in organic molecules) (more asteroids with low albedos that may also be rich in organics, although we do not have samples to confirm.