Updates NASA's Lucy and Psyche: Two Discovery Missions to Explore the Early Solar System

[Nicholas Kang]

(Left) An artist’s conception of the Lucy spacecraft flying by the Trojan Eurybates – one of the six diverse and scientifically important Trojans to be studied.(Right) Psyche, the first mission to the metal world 16 Psyche will map features, structure, composition, and magnetic field, and examine a landscape unlike anything explored before.

Credits: SwRI and SSL/Peter Rubin

NASA has selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system – a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our sun. The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively.

“Lucy will visit a target-rich environment of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids, while Psyche will study a unique metal asteroid that’s never been visited before,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is what Discovery Program missions are all about – boldly going to places we’ve never been to enable groundbreaking science.”

Source:https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-two-missions-to-explore-the-early-solar-system

 

[Unstung]

I like this selection; these missions are truly explorers, but I'm a bit disappointed that NASA hasn't chosen a mission to Venus since the 1980s. Venus is a possible destination for the next New Frontiers mission, but I'm partial to exploring Titan and Enceladus. The Trojan proposal for New Frontiers 4 is probably done for, leaving fewer competitors.

Both Discovery missions have proper names and not horrendous acronyms, which is nice.

 

[Nicholas Kang]

 

[GLS]

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