In area now for greater than three months, the Lucy asteroid explorer is working usually, save for a photo voltaic panel that failed to completely unfurl shortly after launch. Experts with the mission say they’ve recognized the issue, however whether or not they’ll be capable of repair it stays an open query.

The round photo voltaic array, certainly one of two on the spacecraft, is at present caught at 347 levels as an alternative of the total 360 levels, defined Hal Levison, principal investigator for the Lucy mission on the Southwest Research Institute, throughout a January 25 assembly of NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group. Levison’s crew traced the problem to a lanyard that was supposed to tug the array to its totally deployed place however failed to take action.

“Through some unknown process, there was a period where there was no tension on the lanyard as it was deploying,” stated Levison, as Space.com reports. “As a result, the lanyard fell off the spool. We think there’s something like 30 inches [76 centimeters] of lanyard remaining to be pulled in.”

This isn’t a disaster by any means—at the very least not but. As NASA defined in a mission update earlier this month, Lucy’s programs are working usually and the 2 arrays are producing enough quantities of power, even when certainly one of them isn’t in a super configuration. NASA is at present working exams to find out if one other try to deploy the array shall be protected and efficient, or if doing nothing is likely to be the most effective strategy beneath the circumstances.

Lucy launched on October 16, 2021 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The $981 million spacecraft is on a mission to discover Jupiter’s trojan asteroids, which it should do over 12 years. Jupiter’s trojans are packed in two clumps, one in entrance of and one behind the gasoline large in its photo voltaic orbit. These asteroids have been locked like this for billions of years, therefore their description because the “fossils” of planetary formation. Lucy is at present in an “outbound cruise” mode, in accordance with NASA, and it’ll keep in a large Earth orbit for roughly a 12 months earlier than heading over to the Jovian system.

Shortly after launch, nevertheless, certainly one of two photo voltaic arrays didn’t totally deploy and lock into place. Lucy’s photo voltaic panels are like Chinese followers, forming a round array that measures 24 ft (7 meters) in diameter. The photo voltaic panels, constructed by Northrop Grumman, want to offer round 500 watts, which is roughly equal to the power required to function a washer. That’s not a ton of energy, however the arrays should be giant sufficient to seize the required photo voltaic power at distances reaching 500 million miles (800 million km) from the Sun.

Levison and his colleagues are actually contemplating two plans: both use Lucy’s motors to tug the misbehaving lanyard, or do nothing. He stated there’s nonetheless “plenty of time” as a result of “we’re not scheduled to fire the main engines for a while and we’re in cruise,” so “we’re taking our time to carefully go through our options.” At the assembly, Levison confirmed that energy isn’t at present an issue for Lucy, because the arrays are producing from 92% to 93% of the anticipated energy, Space.com studies.

Tests are at present underway to find out if partaking each the first motor and a backup motor on the identical time will exert sufficient drive to complete the deployment and latch the array in place. NASA is at present focusing on a latch try for this April.

As for doing nothing, that’s not with out penalties. Yes, Lucy has loads of energy, however “the issue is the structural integrity of the array during main engine burns,” Levison stated. “The forces and torques going through the array and particularly where it’s connected to the spacecraft are different than designed.” So yeah, not a straightforward determination.

The Lucy mission is continuing as deliberate regardless of this technical annoyance. The crew is at present calibrating steering and the spacecraft’s navigation system to make sure that Lucy may be pointed in the correct route when the time comes. The probe is anticipated to succeed in Jupiter’s trojans in 2027.

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