Spaceship "Lucy" will fly extremely close to Earth

On October 16, NASA's Lucy spacecraft, the first mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, will fly by

earth's atmosphere.The probe will fly just 350 km above the planet's surface. By flying past Earth on the first anniversary of its launch, Lucy will receive some of the orbital energy needed to travel to a previously unvisited population of asteroids.

Currently "Lucy" is one year oldfrom a 12-year journey. Earth's gravitational assistance will put the ship on a new trajectory. In two years, it will return to the planet for a second gravity assist maneuver. This will allow the mission to cross the main asteroid belt, where it will observe the Donald Johanson asteroid and then travel to the Trojan swarm. There, "Lucy" will fly past six Trojan asteroids: Eurybates and its moon Queta, Polymela and its as-yet unnamed moon Leucus, and Orus.

"Lucy" will approach the planet from the direction of the sun.Astronomers will not see the ship a few days before the event, but its camera will take pictures of the almost full Earth and Moon. Mission scientists will use these images to calibrate instruments.

The trajectory of "Lucy" will let the spacecraft downvery close to Earth. It will be even lower than the ISS. The probe will have to pass through a region full of satellites and space debris in low-Earth orbit. To ensure the safety of the spacecraft, NASA developed a special protocol and two different maneuvers.

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