On Could 9, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft carried out a trajectory correction maneuver to set the spacecraft on track for its shut encounter with the small essential belt asteroid Dinkinesh. The maneuver modified the speed of the spacecraft by solely about 7.7 mph (3.4 m/s).
Though the spacecraft is at present touring at roughly 43,000 mph (19.4 km/s), this small nudge is sufficient to transfer the spacecraft almost 40,000 miles (65,000 km) nearer to the asteroid through the deliberate encounter on Nov. 1, 2023. The spacecraft will fly a mere 265 miles (425 km) from the small, half-mile-(sub-km)-sized asteroid, whereas touring at a relative velocity of 10,000 mph (4.5 km/s).
The Lucy group will proceed to observe the spacecraft’s trajectory and can have additional alternatives to high-quality tune the flight path if wanted.
The Lucy group can also be persevering with to investigate the info collected from its spring instrument calibration marketing campaign and make different preparations for the mission’s first asteroid encounter. This encounter will present a invaluable take a look at of the spacecraft’s programs and procedures to make it possible for all the things operates as anticipated through the mission’s high-speed asteroid encounters.
Quotation:
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft adjusts course for asteroid flyby in November (2023, Could 19)
retrieved 19 Could 2023
from https://phys.org/information/2023-05-nasa-lucy-spacecraft-adjusts-asteroid.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any honest dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely.
