Space instrumentation

Abstract:

The Lucy Mission is a NASA Discovery-class mission to send a highly capable and robust spacecraft to investigate seven primitive bodies near both the L4 and L5 Lagrange points with Jupiter: the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These planetesimals from the outer planetary system have been preserved since early in solar system history. The Lucy mission will fly by and extensively study a diverse selection of Trojan asteroids, including all the recognized taxonomic classes, a collisional family member, and a near equal-mass binary. It will visit objects with diameters ranging from roughly 1 km to 100 km. The payload suite consists of a color camera and infrared imaging spectrometer, a high-resolution panchromatic imager, and a thermal infrared spectrometer. Additionally, two spacecraft subsystems will also contribute to the science investigations: the terminal tracking cameras will supplement imaging during closest approach and the telecommunication subsystem will be used to measure the mass of the Trojans. The science goals are derived from the 2013 Planetary Decadal Survey and include determining the surface composition, assessing the geology, determining the bulk properties, and searching for satellites and rings.

Abstract:

The Lucy Mission accomplishes its science during a series of five flyby encounters with seven Trojan asteroid targets. This mission architecture drives a concept of operations design that maximizes science return, provides redundancy in observations where possible, features autonomous fault protection, and utilizes onboard target tracking near closest approach. These design considerations reduce risk during the relatively short time-critical periods when science data is collected. The payload suite consists of a color camera and infrared imaging spectrometer, a high-resolution panchromatic imager, and a thermal infrared spectrometer. The mission design allows for concurrent observations of all instruments. Additionally, two spacecraft subsystems will also contribute to the science investigations: the Terminal Tracking Cameras will obtain wide field-of-view imaging near closest approach to determine the shape of each of the Trojan targets and the telecommunication subsystem will carry out Doppler tracking of the spacecraft to determine the mass of each of the Trojan targets.