NASA Lucy Spacecraft Update: Instruments Powering On and Working Normally

Lucy Spacecraft Deployment

Lucy will explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids – thought to be “fossils of planet formation.” Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The Lucy spacecraft continues to operate in cruise mode – the standard mode for outbound orbit. The team has begun turning on instruments. L’TES and L’Ralph have been powered on and are working normally. Turning on L’LORRI is scheduled for November 8, 2021. Other than the solar array, all subsystems continue to work normally.

The joint Anomaly Response Team has been studying the array using an engineering model. Initial tests indicate that the lanyard that pulls out the solar array may not have completed the process successfully; however, it is still uncertain what caused this condition. The team is conducting more tests to determine if this is indeed the case, and what the root cause might be.

An attempt to characterize the array deployment by attempting to move it would occur no earlier than November 16.

The response team continues its analysis on using the solar array in its current configuration and how that might affect upcoming spacecraft maneuvers.

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