NASA’s Lucy Asteroid Spacecraft Solar Array Repair Achieves ‘Significant Progress’

NASA's Lucy asteroid spacecraft's solar array repair started last May 6 and continued until late June. And now, the space agency says that its rescue saw "significant progress."

It is worth noting that the solar array of the Lucy mission spacecraft failed to fully deploy when it launched last October 2021. Since then, its engineers have been working tediously to troubleshoot it.

NASA's Lucy Asteroid Spacecraft Solar Array Repair

As per a news story by Space.com, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that the repairs for the solar array of the asteroid-hunting spacecraft made some "significant progress."

The online news outlet notes that the Lucy spacecraft flaunts two 7-meter big near-circular solar arrays, which unfold like a traditional fan.

And these two solar arrays play a massive role in the Lucy mission. Space.com says that it essentially powers the spacecraft. However, one out of two solar arrays failed to deploy as it should.

In January, NASA said the whole deployment mess was no thanks to a problem with its lanyard. So, instead of going full 360 degrees, it could only deploy until 350 degrees.

NASA's Lucy Asteroid Spacecraft Fix Sees Significant Progress

But this time, the latest update from the space agency reveals that the second arrow could now deploy up to 357 degrees. So, it is now roughly seven degrees up from several months ago. Yet, it is still short on the 360 degrees deployment goal.

According to a recent report by SciTechDaily, NASA also says that the Lucy spacecraft has become more stable after its array got more tension.

The officials of the agency further reports that "the mission team is increasingly confident the solar array will successfully meet the mission's needs in its current tensioned and stabilized state."

Lucy Spacecraft Deployment Paused?

But despite the "significant progress" on the Lucy spacecraft solar array repair, NASA is halting its further deployments. But why?

The space agency says that the decision is "Due to thermal constraints caused by the relative positions of the Earth, spacecraft, and sun."

NASA explains the spacecraft ends up experiencing difficulties communicating with the Earth "via its high-gain antenna." The agency also discloses that this will be the case "for several months."

But don't worry, as Lucy should be back from its long backout sometime in October.

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Written by Teejay Boris