A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly

A probe intended to study the Trojan asteroids takes off shortly(economist.com)

29 points by varyherb 4 years ago | 11 comments

fideloper 4 years ago |

The orbital physics used is always impressive.

I assume some velocity adjustment is done by the drone to intersect with the asteroids? Or are the orbits that precise?

loa_in_ 4 years ago | |

They are very precise. Take note of this video, recreating one of the real missions that took place four decades (!) ago. It recreates the orbit in Kerbal Space Program with a mod called Principia that enables N-body simulation using original mission specs and calculations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PCCJZzVvg

onetwentythree 4 years ago | |

The spacecraft will make corrections with its onboard thrusters over the course of the mission.

vmception 4 years ago |

Feels like there should be some good open source tools by now to plot optimal orbital paths and speed and slowing down.

fernly 4 years ago |

Thank you for pointing this out. Non-paywalled info, plus even more & nicer graphics:

https://nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index

http://lucy.swri.edu/

don't miss

http://lucy.swri.edu/mission/Targets.html

wgyn 4 years ago |

How feasible is it to build/launch your own probe? A la backyard astronomy.

elihu 4 years ago |

It seems kind of crazy that they would visit the Greeks, then do another flyby of Earth in order to visit the Trojans. I wonder what the cost-benefit analysis was of doing that versus just sending separate probes to each of those (which presumably would need a lot less fuel)?

Is this one of those things where this really is the best and cheapest option and my intuition of orbital mechanics is just wrong?

wiml 4 years ago | |

The flybys provide course changes for very little fuel, including pretty significant velocity boosts. It's not uncommon for a probe to spend a while ping-ponging around the inner system just to get enough speed to reach the outer planets. I doubt the probe has a whole lot of delta-v left once it leaves Earth the first time, probably just enough for course corrections so it can hit the flybys precisely.

hinkley 4 years ago | | |

What ever happened to the interplanetary highway idea?

lmilcin 4 years ago |

The path of this probe to get those encounters looks like magic. How do they find these?

lmilcin 4 years ago | |

Now I know. Thanks, Scott Manley!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbwSSdtWUNE