Trigger of Lucy solar array deployment trouble identified – SpaceNews
WASHINGTON — Engineers have determined the likely rationale one of two solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission unsuccessful to latch in position soon after launch, but NASA is even now finding out regardless of whether to deal with the challenge.
At a Jan. 25 assembly NASA’s Modest Bodies Evaluation Group, Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at the Southwest Analysis Institute, expressed confidence that, no matter if the solar array is fully deployed or not, the challenge will not impact the spacecraft’s ability to have out its mission to analyze many Trojan asteroids leading and following Jupiter in its orbit all over the sun.
Soon following its Oct. 16 launch, deployed two huge circular solar arrays, each 7.3 meters in diameter. The arrays are intended to unfurl like followers and latch into location. When a single array, referred to as -Y, did completely unfurl and latch, the other, +Y, did not latch into area.
“People have been working day and night time since the start to check out and figure out what is heading on, and I think we comprehend it,” Levison explained. The +Y array, alternatively than unfurling a whole 360 degrees, in its place went 347 levels. In that configuration, the spacecraft is nevertheless producing more than 90% of its predicted energy. “Power is not an difficulty for the spacecraft, nor will it be through the complete mission if we have to fly it like it is.”
The arrays unfurl when a motor pulls on a lanyard, swinging a single conclude of the array close to and into put. Levison claimed that the most possible motive the array did not latch is that, for some motive, there was a decline of tension in the lanyard during deployment. That brought about it to tumble off a spool and wrap close to the motor shaft. About 75 centimeters of lanyard stays to be pulled in.
“It matches the data genuinely properly, so we have really large self esteem this is true,” he explained. One particular probable trigger of the reduction of pressure, he additional, is a “dynamic interaction” involving the two arrays during the deployment.
Mission administrators are taking into consideration two options. A single is to convert the motors back on and try to provide in the remaining lanyard phase so that the array can lock into put. “We’re virtually there, so I feel if we can pull a small tougher, we could possibly be ready to get it to latch,” he explained. The motor can pull more difficult, he said, but engineers want to evaluate the threats of accomplishing so prior to creating a further attempt.
The other possibility is to hold the array as is. Whilst the array can produce sufficient energy with no becoming totally deployed, Levison reported engineers want to analyze its integrity in that configuration through principal engine burns. “The assessment so considerably is wanting good. We really should be equipped to do at minimum some of the key motor burns we’re scheduling.”
There is no hurry to determine whether or not to redeploy the array or depart it as is. “We have a good deal of time because we’re not scheduled to fire the key engine for a although,” he reported. “We’re taking our time to thoroughly go by means of our options.”
That assessment matches the most modern NASA update about the mission, posted Jan. 12. It said that the present-day strategy for the mission “supports a latch endeavor in the late April timeframe” but that engineers were still finding out leaving the array in its existing unlatched affliction.
Levison additional that all other features of the spacecraft, together with its instruments, were operating nicely. “Except for this issue, the spacecraft is truly kicking butt,” he mentioned. “The instruments and the spacecraft are all behaving nominally.”
WASHINGTON — Engineers have determined the likely rationale one of two solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission unsuccessful to latch in position soon after launch, but NASA is even now finding out regardless of whether to deal with the challenge.
At a Jan. 25 assembly NASA’s Modest Bodies Evaluation Group, Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at the Southwest Analysis Institute, expressed confidence that, no matter if the solar array is fully deployed or not, the challenge will not impact the spacecraft’s ability to have out its mission to analyze many Trojan asteroids leading and following Jupiter in its orbit all over the sun.
Soon following its Oct. 16 launch, deployed two huge circular solar arrays, each 7.3 meters in diameter. The arrays are intended to unfurl like followers and latch into location. When a single array, referred to as -Y, did completely unfurl and latch, the other, +Y, did not latch into area.
“People have been working day and night time since the start to check out and figure out what is heading on, and I think we comprehend it,” Levison explained. The +Y array, alternatively than unfurling a whole 360 degrees, in its place went 347 levels. In that configuration, the spacecraft is nevertheless producing more than 90% of its predicted energy. “Power is not an difficulty for the spacecraft, nor will it be through the complete mission if we have to fly it like it is.”
The arrays unfurl when a motor pulls on a lanyard, swinging a single conclude of the array close to and into put. Levison claimed that the most possible motive the array did not latch is that, for some motive, there was a decline of tension in the lanyard during deployment. That brought about it to tumble off a spool and wrap close to the motor shaft. About 75 centimeters of lanyard stays to be pulled in.
“It matches the data genuinely properly, so we have really large self esteem this is true,” he explained. One particular probable trigger of the reduction of pressure, he additional, is a “dynamic interaction” involving the two arrays during the deployment.
Mission administrators are taking into consideration two options. A single is to convert the motors back on and try to provide in the remaining lanyard phase so that the array can lock into put. “We’re virtually there, so I feel if we can pull a small tougher, we could possibly be ready to get it to latch,” he explained. The motor can pull more difficult, he said, but engineers want to evaluate the threats of accomplishing so prior to creating a further attempt.
The other possibility is to hold the array as is. Whilst the array can produce sufficient energy with no becoming totally deployed, Levison reported engineers want to analyze its integrity in that configuration through principal engine burns. “The assessment so considerably is wanting good. We really should be equipped to do at minimum some of the key motor burns we’re scheduling.”
There is no hurry to determine whether or not to redeploy the array or depart it as is. “We have a good deal of time because we’re not scheduled to fire the key engine for a although,” he reported. “We’re taking our time to thoroughly go by means of our options.”
That assessment matches the most modern NASA update about the mission, posted Jan. 12. It said that the present-day strategy for the mission “supports a latch endeavor in the late April timeframe” but that engineers were still finding out leaving the array in its existing unlatched affliction.
Levison additional that all other features of the spacecraft, together with its instruments, were operating nicely. “Except for this issue, the spacecraft is truly kicking butt,” he mentioned. “The instruments and the spacecraft are all behaving nominally.”