NASA’s Lucy probe will have a close encounter with the space rock Dinkinesh on November 1st, and a new video from the agency offers a preview of this exciting event.
Dinkinesh is situated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It will be Lucy’s first stop among the nine other space rocks it plans to visit. Lucy’s future destinations are Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter’s orbit in our solar system.
The Lucy mission, launched in October 2021, didn’t originally include Dinkinesh in its itinerary. The decision to add it was made in January 2023. However, this won’t be just a sightseeing trip. Lucy will test its innovative Terminal Tracking System while studying Dinkinesh. This system enables the spacecraft to keep its instruments pointed at asteroids during flybys.
Related: Meet the 10 asteroids that NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will visit
However, this test won’t be a stroll in the park. During its final approach, Lucy will reach speeds of 10,000 mph (16,000 kph) — about six times faster than a bullet from a rifle.
A NASA video explains that the Dinkinesh encounter is the perfect opportunity to put the Terminal Tracking System to the test. The flyby’s geometry, particularly Lucy’s approach angle in relation to the sun, is similar to the mission’s planned encounters with Trojan asteroids.
This encounter between Lucy and Dinkinesh serves as a “dress rehearsal” for the probe’s future encounters with other scientifically significant targets. The challenge lies in the fact that Dinkinesh is smaller than the other Reference
