NASA makes 'significant progress' in unfurling Lucy's solar panels; know details

NASA, in its latest update, revealed that it has made 'significant progress' in the efforts to completely deploy the Lucy spacecraft's jammed solar array. Launched in October last year, the spacecraft's solar arrays failed to unfurl completely after reaching outer space and are currently stuck at 75% to 95% capacity. However, the mission team is working to rescue the solar panels and according to NASA, the latest efforts were made between May 6 to June 16. 

"The team commanded the spacecraft to operate the array’s deployment motor for limited periods of time, allowing them to closely monitor the response of the spacecraft", NASA officials wrote in a blog. Following the attempts, the array is now between 353 degrees and 357 degrees open, out of 360 total degrees, which would be considered completely unfurled. "Additionally, the array is under substantially more tension, giving it significantly more stabilization", the blog post informed. 

Notably, the mission team is confident that despite its current condition, the panels will meet the needs of the mission and not hamper the spacecraft's journey. Meanwhile, NASA said that it will halt any further attempts since the spacecraft is entering a planned period of limited communications. During this period, there will be thermal constraints due to Lucy's relative positions with the Earth and the Sun, making the spacecraft unable to communicate via its high-gain antenna for several months.

For the said time, Lucy will be using its low-gain antenna for communication before it comes out of this period after its Earth gravity assist manoeuvre on October 16. This is when the mission team would again attempt to completely rescue the solar panels. 

NASA's Lucy mission

The Lucy spacecraft is bound for asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. Currently on a 12-year-long journey, Lucy will study a total of nine asteroids, one from the main belt and seven trojan asteroids. Trojan asteroids are the space rocks that have been trapped under Jupiter's gravity and are orbiting the gas giants with secrets of our early solar system. Read more about NASA's one-of-a-kind mission here.