LUCY will carry with it a message for our future

in the seventies Four space probes began their one-way journey out of ours Solar SystemIt is the first thing ever built by man to venture into interstellar space.

NASA So he chose to put plates (on Pioneer 10 and 11) and golden discs (on Voyager 1 H 2It contains messages for all of these “space travelers” to meet them someday.

Continuing this legacy, spaceship Lucy subordinate NASA He will carry something similar with him. However, because the probe will not venture beyond our range Solar System, Lucy’s content will be more like a time capsule with messages to us Grandsons.

As the first ever mission directed towards Trojan asteroids on JupiterAnd the Lucy will examine this mysterious group of small objects It orbits the sun behind the main asteroid belt, trapped Between the orbit of Jupiter and our star.

Because these celestial bodies are considered deities “fossils” For the formation and evolution of the planets of our solar system, the spacecraft Lucy It takes its name from the fossilized ancestor of humans discovered 1974 in Ethiopia, whose name, in turn, was inspired by a song the Beatles “Lucy in the sky with diamonds“.

Then, in 2033The probe will finish visiting a number asteroid record for one task (Ben 8 is 6 orbits independent around the sun), will continue to travel between other Trojan celestial bodies and at least the Earth’s orbit for others Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years.

So it is easy to imagine that one day, in the distant future, our grandchildren They will find Lucy floating among the planets. Therefore, the team behind the development of the probe chose its position time capsule On board Lucy in the form of a board bearing messages this time Not for foreigners Unknown, but to mortals who will come after us.

This time capsule contains Messages Notable members to our company. Nobel laureates, poets, and other inspiring personalities, who have been asked to reflect on the human condition and our place in the universe. for these characters hard task To offer advice, words of wisdom, joy and inspiration to anyone who might read this painting in the distant future.

So far, the time capsule of Lucy, installed during a party in Lockheed Martin Space From Littleton, in Colorado, on July 9, 2021, also includes a representation of the current solar system, the spacecraft’s original trajectory (travel between Trojan swarms and Earth’s orbit), as well as Some quotes from the Beatles Which indirectly inspired the name of the mission.

All that remains is to wait release day, scheduled for On October 16, 2021.