On April 18, NASA made up our minds to trail forward with plans to full the deployment of the Lucy spacecraft’s stalled, unlatched solar array. The spacecraft is powered by two big arrays of solar cells that had been designed to unfold and latch into predicament after originate. One amongst the fan-admire arrays opened as deliberate, however the different stopped stunning quick of ending this operation.
By a combination of rigorous in-flight solar array characterization and ground making an strive out, Lucy engineers optimistic the unlatched solar array is merely about absolutely originate, positioned at roughly 345 out of the fleshy 360 degrees, and is producing astronomical energy for the spacecraft. Nonetheless, the team is anxious about doable damage to the array if the spacecraft conducts a predominant engine burn in its recent configuration.
After originate, the arrays had been opened by a cramped motor that reels in a lanyard linked to both ends of the folded solar array. The team estimates that 20 to 40 inches of this lanyard (out of roughly 290 inches full) remains to be retracted for the originate array to latch.
The solar array used to be designed with both a predominant and a backup motor winding to give an added layer of reliability for the mission-serious solar array deployment. Lucy engineers will pick benefit of this redundancy by the exercise of both motors concurrently to generate elevated torque than used to be primitive on the day of originate. Floor assessments repeat that this added torque could well be ample to pull the knotted up lanyard the remaining distance wanted to latch.
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