Lucy in the sky with diamonds to explore asteroid cluster
NASA has given a Beatles-themed launch to a spacecraft named Lucy on the first mission to explore eight asteroids clustered around Jupiter.
An Atlas V rocket blasted off before dawn yesterday, sending Lucy on a roundabout orbital journey that is expected to last 12 years, span nearly 4 billion miles and teach us more about the formation of the solar system.
“I’m just elated,” said Robert Cabana, Nasa’s associate administrator, after liftoff. “This is the coolest darn mission.”
Lucy is named after the 3.2 millionyear-old skeletal remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia nearly a halfcentury ago. That discovery was named after the 1967 Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, inspiring Nasa to send the spacecraft soaring with its lyrics imprinted on a plaque.
The unmanned vehicle is also carrying a disc made of lab-grown diamonds for one of its science instruments.
In a video for Nasa, Ringo Starr, the Beatles’ drummer, paid tribute to his late colleague John Lennon, credited with writing the song that inspired the name. “Lucy is going back in the sky with diamonds – Johnny will love that,” Starr said. “If you meet anyone up there, Lucy, give them peace and love from me.”
Lucy will visit eight asteroids, known as Trojans. Formed around 4.5 billion years ago, they are believed to be leftovers from the formation of the solar system. “Are there mountains? Valleys? Pits? Mesas? Who knows? I’m sure we’re going to be surprised,” said Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University, who is in charge of Lucy’s camera.
Lucy will chase down five asteroids in the leading pack of Trojans in the late 2020s. The spacecraft will then swoop back toward Earth for a gravity assist in 2030 that will swing it back out to the trailing Trojan cluster, where it will zip past the final two targets in 2033.