Lucy, Discovery Mission 13 - a grand tour of the Jupiter Trojans Options

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

Obligatory new thread for the Lucy mission, now that it has been selected by NASA to launch as Discovery mission 13! Lucy will launch in 2021, and will perform a flyby of a main belt asteroid in 2025, before making flybys of at least six Jupiter trojans from 2027 to 2033. The mission, led by the Southwest Research Institute and Principal Investigator Harold F. Levison, will send a spacecraft carrying updated versions of New Horizons' LORRI and RALPH instruments.

Be sure to check out r/lucymission on reddit as well!

EDIT: I have made a mistake. Could a kind mod please move this thread to the "Cometary and Asteroid Missions" subforum?

ADMIN: Done.

Note for the new members: Generally speaking, please consult a member of the admin/mod team before creating new topics. Not a hard rule, but it does help to keep the place tidy. Also, we encourage all members to review this welcome post for orientation purposes. Thanks!

[Patteroast]

Very excited for this mission. I'm a sucker for seeing new worlds, and I didn't realize Patroclus-Menoetius was a target for Lucy until it was selected. And so many others, too!

[Mongo]

This new paper on arXiv suggests that Jupiter formed past Neptune and then migrated inwards to its current orbit, sweeping up the Jupiter Trojan asteroids with it. They make a compelling case, that explains the otherwise inexplicable asymmetry between the leading and trailing Trojan clouds.

This would mean that there is an incredible compositional diversity within the Trojans, due to their origins ranging from the inner Kuiper belt to the location of the current Hilda asteroids. So the Lucy mission has the opportunity to visit bodies originating throughout the middle and outer solar system, which makes it even more important for understanding the history of the solar system.

[Holder of the Tw...]

They are ready to start building the spacecraft.

Link: Lucy passes Critical Design Review