NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Flyby Asteroid Dinkinesh At 10,000 MPH

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NASA's Lucy mission flyby asteroid Dinkinesh (aka 1999 VD57).   Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Produced, Edited, and Narrated by: David Ladd (AIMM) Animations by: Walt Feimer (KBRWyle) and Jonathan North (KBRWyle) Visualizations by: Kel Elkins (USRA) Music provided by Universal Production Music: "Pioneer" - Lorenzo Castellarin

Transcript

00:00On November 1, 2023, NASA's Lucy spacecraft will fly by a small main-belt asteroid named

00:08Dinkinesh.

00:09This flyby was added to Lucy's list of targets in January 2023.

00:14There will now be 10 asteroids that the Lucy mission will explore on its record-breaking

00:18tour.

00:20Dinkinesh will be the smallest main-belt asteroid to have ever been well imaged by a spacecraft,

00:26registering at only about a half-mile in size.

00:30The primary purpose of this encounter is to test the spacecraft's Terminal Tracking System,

00:35which will keep Lucy's instruments pointing at the asteroid as it flies by at 10,000 miles

00:40per hour.

00:41This test may prove crucial to the overall success of the mission.

00:46Even with the best Earth-based observations of these distant objects, there will still

00:49be some uncertainty about precisely where each target will be as Lucy approaches it.

00:55During its journey, Lucy will utilize its LELORI instrument for optical navigation to

01:00improve that knowledge, but uncertainties as large as 100 miles may still remain.

01:06If nothing was done, the science instruments could completely miss the asteroid during

01:10the closest approach.

01:13It's for this reason that Lucy uses the Terminal Tracking System to image the Trojan targets

01:18in the final hours of an approach, and to autonomously update the spacecraft's onboard

01:23knowledge of the location of the asteroid in space.

01:27This, in turn, allows the instruments to aim with precision, which will facilitate better

01:32imaging and measurement of these small bodies.

01:37The Dinkinesh asteroid presents the perfect opportunity to test this system.

01:42The geometry of this encounter, particularly the angle that the spacecraft approaches the

01:47asteroid relative to the Sun, is very similar to the mission's planned Trojan asteroid encounters.

01:52This allows NASA to essentially carry out a dress rehearsal under similar conditions,

01:57well in advance of the spacecraft's main scientific targets.

02:01It's also a full year and a half earlier than the already planned Donald Johanson asteroid

02:05encounter, which will serve as a more intricate and complex test of the spacecraft's systems

02:10and instruments.

02:13And since Dinkinesh is much smaller than any of the Trojan asteroids that Lucy will be

02:17collecting data on, this test is meant to challenge the Terminal Tracking System's

02:22capabilities.

02:23It's likely that the system will lock onto Dinkinesh for only a few minutes before closest

02:27approach, compared to the hour or more it will have for the Trojan targets.

02:32So, no matter the end result, this flyby will provide Lucy's science team and flight engineers

02:39with important insights into how the tracking system can function.

02:43After the encounter with Dinkinesh, Lucy's orbit around the Sun will bring it back towards

02:47Earth for its second gravity assist in December 2024.

02:52That assist will send the spacecraft off to meet its main objectives among the Trojan

02:56asteroids.

02:59While the primary purpose of the Dinkinesh encounter is an engineering test, the data

03:03collected may also provide insight on the relationship between the main belt asteroids

03:08and near-Earth asteroids.

03:11This is an exciting addition to Lucy's groundbreaking mission.

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