This page presents our resources for those who want to learn more about Mission Lucy. It includes activities that can be done at home as well as videos, animations, stories and articles.
Follow the Lucy Mission via #LucyMission and @NASASolarSystem on your favorite social media platform.
On this page:
Videos and animations
Lucie’s journey
Meet Lucy as she prepares for the very first voyage to the Trojan asteroids, a population of small, primitive bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. “Lucy’s Journey†premieres September 9, with new episodes every Thursday.
Episode 1 of 6 – “Launch”
Download the video here.
Lucy goes to space
Scientists and engineers on NASA’s Lucy mission share their excitement about visiting Trojan asteroids, what it’s like to work on a NASA mission, and what Lucy will find out about the history of our solar system.
Episode 1 of 5 – “Exploring the Solar System”
Download the video here.
Activities
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Lucy coloring page
Color your own Lucy spaceship.
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Lucy Paper Snowflake
Make your own Lucy paper snowflake!
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Lucy Paper Spaceship
Create your own Lucy paper spaceship model, at an approximate scale of 1:50. Note: The skill level is intermediate.
Stories
Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids
NASA’s Lucy mission will be the first to visit the Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive asteroids orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. These are remnants of planetesimals – the primitive building blocks that formed the planets – that were captured in two regions, near the points where the gravitational influence of Jupiter and the Sun equilibrate. These primitive bodies hold essential clues to decipher the history of the solar system, and possibly even the origins of organic matter on Earth.
Launched on October 16, 2021, Lucy will be the first space mission to study Trojans. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by its discoverers) whose skeleton provided a unique insight into the evolution of humanity. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. Lucy will be on a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids – one main belt asteroid and seven Trojans, four of which are members of two-for-one binary systems.
You can explore this mission by making your own Lucy spaceship out of paper.
Articles
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Lucy, the first NASA spacecraft to explore Trojan asteroids, arrived Friday, July 30, 2021 at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is undergoing final preparations for launch in October.
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Once the Lucy spacecraft completes its mission, it will continue to travel in space for at least hundreds of thousands of years. It is easy to imagine that in the distant future our descendants will find Lucy floating among the planets. Therefore, the Lucy team chose to put a time capsule on board the Lucy spacecraft in the form of a special plate.
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Find out how the targets of the Lucy mission were discovered and named.
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Before NASA’s Lucy mission could begin its long journey to the Trojan asteroids, the first science camera to be delivered to the spacecraft had to travel 1,500 miles across the continental United States. The Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’ORRI) was then successfully integrated on the spacecraft on October 30, 2020.
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The second scientific instrument of NASA’s Lucy mission, the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES), was successfully integrated into the probe on December 16, 2020.
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The third and final scientific instrument in NASA’s Lucy mission, The Ralph, was built by NASA’s Goddard Space Center and was integrated into the spacecraft on January 26, 2021. The Ralph is the most powerful instrument. complicated that will fly on Lucy, as it is actually two instruments in one.
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Explore the Lucy spaceship in the Lockheed Martin White Room in Denver, Colorado.
Other resources
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Explore activities, posters, and other graphics relevant to Lucy.
