Skip to main content

NASA team pauses efforts to deploy Lucy spacecraft’s unlatched array

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft recently made a flyby of Earth, capturing some stunning images of our planet on its way to investigate the Trojan asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter. But Lucy has had some troubles in the form of a solar array that hasn’t fully deployed. Although issues with the array shouldn’t prevent the spacecraft from achieving its science goals, the team had hoped to fix the problem. But now, they have had to pause their efforts to get the array into place.

Lucy has two large round solar arrays which collect energy from the sun to power the spacecraft. These arrays were folded up for launch in October 2021, then deployed in a clock-like motion once the spacecraft was in space. One of the two arrays deployed and locked into place as planned, but the second array didn’t fully deploy. The array folded out far enough to collect the power needed for the mission. However, because it wasn’t fully deployed, it couldn’t latch into place, meaning it was not as rigid as it could be.

Recommended Videos

Since the problem was discovered shortly after launch, engineers have been working to get the array fully deployed and latched. The concern was that, when Lucy performed maneuvers like firing its engines to adjust its course, the forces could shake the loose array and potentially cause damage.  “The likelihood of mission success in the current unlatched state is high, however the team expects that additional deployment—or potential latch—only improves confidence in performance without jeopardizing the spacecraft’s safety,” NASA wrote in an update.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

With the spacecraft now traveling away from Earth again following its recent flyby, the team attempted once more to deploy the array. Though the array did deploy further, it still didn’t latch into place. The data also showed something concerning in the form of a small vibration between the array and the spacecraft’s attitude controller. “While this vibration is too small to pose a risk to the spacecraft in its current state, further array deployment attempts have been paused while the attitude controller is updated to resolve this issue,” NASA said.

For now, the spacecraft has been turned so that the array is warmed by the heat of the sun, which should help it expand and provide more rigidity. The team says they hope to try more deployment attempts once they have looked at the vibration issue.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Asteroid impacted by spacecraft is reshaped like an M&M ‘with a bite taken out’
An illustration shows a spacecraft from NASA's DART mission approaching the asteroid it was intended to redirect.

In 2022, the world watched with fascination as NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in a test of what kind of defense options might be available to humanity if an incoming asteroid ever threatened Earth. Observers could tell very quickly that the test, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART, was successful in changing the asteroid's orbit. But now astronomers have learned more, finding that the impact may have reshaped the asteroid significantly.

The asteroid impacted, called Dimorphos, is very small at around 500 feet across, and the DART spacecraft crashed into it at a tremendous speed of nearly 4 miles per second. Researchers have now used computer modeling to see the effects of this impact, given the limited amount of information we have on the composition and uneven surface of Dimorphos.

Read more
One last orbit: how and why NASA kills its own spacecraft
An artist's rendition of the NEOWISE spacecraft shows it in orbit above the earth.

For more than a decade, NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission has been searching the sky for near-Earth objects. Using its infrared vision, the spacecraft, which sits in orbit above Earth's surface, has looked out for asteroids and comets throughout the solar system and has been used to identify those that could come close to Earth.

You might recognize the name because it was used for one of the mission's discoveries, comet NEOWISE, which was the brightest comet in over 20 years when it zipped past Earth in 2020.

Read more
NASA’s Juno spacecraft to pass within 1,000 miles of volcanic moon Io
This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam.

NASA's Juno spacecraft, currently in orbit around Jupiter, will soon be making a close flyby of one of the planet's most dramatic moons, Io. On Saturday, December 30, Juno will come within 1,000 miles of Io, making it the closest spacecraft to that moon in the last 20 years.

Io is an intriguing place because it shows signs of significant volcanic activity, making it the most geologically active body in the solar system. It hosts over 400 active volcanoes, which periodically erupt due to hot magma inside the moon created by friction caused by the gravitational pull between Jupiter and its other large moons.

Read more