A Single Spacecraft Will Visit Seven Asteroids. NASA's Lucy Mission Passes Its Design Review

Scientists have had the opportunity to examine several asteroids in the Solar System now, and what they’ve learned is how much variety is out there, depending on the mass, distance from the Sun and composition.

Astronomers currently know of 829,400 asteroids across the Solar System, and they’d love to visit as many of them as possible to learn more about them.

Considering the price of a single spacecraft, that’s going to get expensive. Fortunately, there are places in the Solar System that have trapped a large number of asteroids in a way that a single spacecraft can visit several of them as part of a mission.

They’re at Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points, and this week NASA approved a new mission that’ll explore 7 different asteroids over a 12-year journey.

It’s called Lucy.

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[peterpalumbo]

This is definitely one of the best videos you ever made Fraser. keep up the good work!

[logiconabstractions]

THere are some channels you can just pre-like the video!

[astrophonix]

"Lucy in the Sky with Asteroids!"

[Vienna]

This makes me hope we land a probe on Ceres one day

[Keithful]

Kudos to the men and women who calculate the orbits and timing of the flybys. Just amazing.

[matthewgrotke]

This is why I love your work. I listened to this episode via podcast and had to drop in here to leave a comment. I never knew we had a 2nd group of asteroids as numerous as the asteroid belt.

[brutebernard]

Thanks Fraser, informative and well put together. Serendipitously I listened to an old Planetary Society podcast on Lucy today. I think the combo of both formats have helped with deeper learning. Really looking forward to this mission.

[JohnJohansen]

Thanks for another great and interesting video, Fraser. 👍

[Kas__]

Hey Fraiser, as a suggestion I think a video on Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 would be really informative and great. I've noticed they are quite forgotten and are overshadowed by the Voyagers.

[TheCuriousNoob]

Any new spacecraft is good news to me! Thank you so much for your channel Fraser Cain!

[joaodecarvalho]

It is exciting to be living in the golden age of space exploration. It is amazing that they already have a lot of data about the places they will visit.

[Dave_thenerd]

4:05 Since LUCY is coming back to Earth for a gravity assist, could it return a sample of the asteroids which we could pick up from space?

[Hayzarit]

Hi Frazer, great show. Lucy’s trajectory is puzzling. According to your video, it seems like there are huge changes of velocities (the giant 8 shape). Is this an artifact because the frame seems to rotate with Jupiter? Or will Lucy use some kind of ion engine?

[cervantesphantom]

Amazing!!! Lot of fun in the next years! Kudos for NASA!

[JohnVance]

This is so cool. Nice to have something to look forward to.

[TheCuriousNoob]

Haha the golden Lucy logo reminded me of Microsoft Word 2000 WordArt

[chippysteve]

Wowzers! That's one hell of a flightpath.
Best century ever!

[TomDixonMN]

That orbital trace is crazy (and kinda cool).

[giovannifoulmouth]

Awesome mission. Can't wait to watch it succeed.

[Shaden]

The early homonid Lucy was named after the Beatles' song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". So this Lucy too, is named after the Beatles' Lucy.