After a lanyard fell off its spool, NASA is mulling whether to try again to deploy the solar panel—or do nothing.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab/Adriana Gutierrez
In space now for more than three months, the Lucy asteroid explorer is operating normally, save for a solar panel that failed to fully unfurl shortly after launch. Experts with the mission say they’ve identified the problem, but whether they’ll be able to fix it remains an open question.
“Through some unknown process, there was a period where there was no tension on the lanyard as it was deploying,” said Levison, as Space.com. “As a result, the lanyard fell off the spool. We think there’s something like 30 inches [76 centimeters] of lanyard remaining to be pulled in.”earlier this month, Lucy’s systems are operating normally and the two arrays are producing sufficient amounts of energy, even if one of them is not in an ideal configuration.
Lucy launched on October 16, 2021 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The $981 million spacecraft is on ato explore Jupiter’s trojan asteroids, which it will do over 12 years. Jupiter’s trojans are packed in two clumps, one in front of and one behind the gas giant in its solar orbit. These asteroids have been locked like this for billions of years, hence their description as the “fossils” of planetary formation.
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NASA's Lucy asteroid spacecraft still has a wonky solar array as it flies through spaceMeghan is a senior writer at Space.com and has more than five years' experience as a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets including Newsweek and Audubon. Meghan earned an MA in science journalism from New York University and a BA in classics from Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and visiting museums. Follow her on Twitter at meghanbartels.
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