NASA released this photo, which shows the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying Lucy aboard. It launches from Space Launch Complex 41 on Saturday Oct. 16, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft ever to study Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids. Lucy, named after Lucy's fossilized human ancestor "Lucy", will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of the solar system and its formation. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP
NASA's Lucy spacecraft launched into the air Saturday morning with diamonds as part of a 12-year mission to discover eight asteroids.
Seven of the mysterious space rock are part of a swarm of asteroids orbiting Jupiter. They are thought to be leftovers from planetary formation.
The Atlas V rocket launched before dawn and sent Lucy on an orbital journey of nearly 4 billion miles (6.33 billion km). Robert Cabana (NASA's associate administrator) said that he was just "elated" after liftoff. "This is the coolest darn missions."
Lucy was named after the 3.2million-year-old bones of an Ethiopian human ancestor nearly 50 years ago. NASA was inspired by the 1967 Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and sent the spacecraft to orbit with NASA's lyrics and other luminaries' wisdom on a plaque. For one of its science instruments, the spacecraft carried a disc of lab-grown diamonds.
Ringo Starr, the Beatles drummer, paid tribute to John Lennon in a NASA prerecorded video. He is credited with writing the song that inspired it all.
NASA has released this image showing a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Lucy spacecraft, ready for launch from Space Launch Complex 41 on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft ever to study Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids. Lucy, named after Lucy's fossilized human ancestor "Lucy", will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of the solar system and its formation. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP
"Lucy is returning to the sky with diamonds. Starr stated that Johnny would love it. "Anyway, Lucy, if you meet anyone up there give them my love and peace."
Donald Johanson (paleoanthropologist who discovered fossil Lucy), said that he was astonished at the "intersection between our past, present, and future."
Johanson of Arizona State University was on the Cape Canaveral launch team and stated, "That a human ancestor lived so long ago stimulated mission which promises valuable information about our solar system's formation is incredibly exciting."
Lucy's $981million mission to Jupiter's Trojan entourage is the first to target the giant gas giant. It consists of thousands, if not millions, of asteroids that orbit the sun. While some of the Trojan asteroids are ahead of Jupiter's orbit, others are behind it.
NASA's Lucy spacecraft and its housing at the AstroTech facility, Titusville (Fla.) was taken Wednesday, September 29, 2021. This will be the first mission in space to examine a diverse group of small bodies, known as Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux, File
The Trojans orbit far away from Earth and are scattered far apart from one another, despite their proximity. According to Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute, the principal scientist on the mission, there is virtually no chance that Lucy will be engulfed by one while it passes its targets.
Lucy will fly past Earth in October 2024 and again in 2024, to gain enough gravitational power to reach Jupiter's orbit. The spacecraft will pass Donaldjohanson, an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, on its way to Jupiter. This rock, appropriately named, will be used as a warm-up act in 2025 for the science instruments.
Lucy will use power from two large circular solar wings to chase down five asteroids belonging to the Trojan leader pack in the 2020s. The spacecraft will then return to Earth in 2030 for another gravity assistance. This will allow it to swing back out towards the Trojan cluster that is trailing it, where it will pass the last two targets in 2033.
NASA released this image showing a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Lucy spacecraft. It launched from Space Launch Complex 41 on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft ever to study Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids. Lucy, named after Lucy's fossilized human ancestor "Lucy", will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of the solar system and its formation. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP
NASA released this image showing a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Lucy spacecraft. It launched from Space Launch Complex 41 on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft ever to study Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids. Lucy, named after Lucy's fossilized human ancestor "Lucy", will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of the solar system and its formation. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP
NASA released this image showing a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Lucy spacecraft. It launched from Space Launch Complex 41 on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft ever to study Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids. Lucy, named after Lucy's fossilized human ancestor "Lucy", will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of the solar system and its formation. Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP
It's a complex, twisty path that left NASA's science chief Thomas Zurbuchen shaking his head. "You have to be kidding. It's possible. He recalled asking.
Lucy will travel within 600 miles (965 km) of each target. The largest one is approximately 70 miles (113 km).
"Are there any mountains?" Are there valleys? Pits? Mesas? We don't know. "I'm sure that we're going be surprised," Hal Weaver from Johns Hopkins University, who is in charge of Lucy’s black-and white camera, said. "But we cannot wait to see what... images will reveal about fossils formed from the formation the solar system."
NASA will launch another mission next month in an effort to determine if humans can alter the orbit of an asteroid. This is to be prepared for any future encounters with a deadly rock.
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