Lucy engineers again attempt to complete deployment of solar array
Artist’s impression of solar panel
On November 7, 2022, the Lucy science team made another attempt to complete the deployment of one of the spacecraft’s two solar arrays, as shown in the graphic to the right. After launch that array failed to deploy properly, and though later attempts have gotten it mostly open, it has not latched tight.
On Monday, Nov. 7, the spacecraft was instructed to point toward the Sun and operate the array deployment motors for a short period of time. As expected, the latest attempt deployed the wing incrementally forward, but it did not latch. The operation did succeed in providing the team with data to evaluate the array’s status and ascertain any changes since the last deployment attempt on June 16.
During this analysis, the team identified that a small vibration occurred as the unlatched array interacted with the spacecraft’s attitude controller while the array was pointed toward Earth and at a cold temperature. The vibration did not occur as a result of the deployment activity itself. While this vibration is too small to pose a risk to the spacecraft in its current state, further array deployment attempts have been paused while the attitude controller is updated to resolve this issue. In the meantime, the spacecraft was reoriented so that the array is warmer, and the team found that the vibration is not present. The team will re-evaluate further redeployment activities once the updates to the controller are checked out on the spacecraft.
In other words, engineers have decided to halt further deployment attempts until they understand fully the cause of this vibration.
At present, the spacecraft is in good health, and the array, only a few degrees short of full deployment, is producing more than 90% of its expected power, more than enough to run the full mission.
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Artist’s impression of solar panel
On November 7, 2022, the Lucy science team made another attempt to complete the deployment of one of the spacecraft’s two solar arrays, as shown in the graphic to the right. After launch that array failed to deploy properly, and though later attempts have gotten it mostly open, it has not latched tight.
On Monday, Nov. 7, the spacecraft was instructed to point toward the Sun and operate the array deployment motors for a short period of time. As expected, the latest attempt deployed the wing incrementally forward, but it did not latch. The operation did succeed in providing the team with data to evaluate the array’s status and ascertain any changes since the last deployment attempt on June 16.
During this analysis, the team identified that a small vibration occurred as the unlatched array interacted with the spacecraft’s attitude controller while the array was pointed toward Earth and at a cold temperature. The vibration did not occur as a result of the deployment activity itself. While this vibration is too small to pose a risk to the spacecraft in its current state, further array deployment attempts have been paused while the attitude controller is updated to resolve this issue. In the meantime, the spacecraft was reoriented so that the array is warmer, and the team found that the vibration is not present. The team will re-evaluate further redeployment activities once the updates to the controller are checked out on the spacecraft.
In other words, engineers have decided to halt further deployment attempts until they understand fully the cause of this vibration.
At present, the spacecraft is in good health, and the array, only a few degrees short of full deployment, is producing more than 90% of its expected power, more than enough to run the full mission.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Do they anticipate that the array will not produce sufficient power when it is further from the Sun? Or do they fear that some force might reduce the deployment amount, and have the same effect?
Without understanding what the risk motivation is, it is hard to understand trying to tweak a mechanism millions of miles away, at the risk of permanently undoing an acceptable condition.
“I know engineers, they LOVE to change things”. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, M.D
This was the type of solar panels Orion was to use early on, I believe
https://www.universetoday.com/74335/space-factory-of-the-future-preparing-for-orion-spacecraft-for-flight/
The current ones are overperforming
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-nasa-moon-mission-exceeding-expectaions.html
That’s right, keep messing with it until you break it
Think of the benefit of having a tiny 3inch cube with a camera that you could deploy from the main spacecraft to inspect the exterior. Of course it better be very reliable to avoid crashing into anything. These last 3 years I have been living for those camera shots that SpaceX provides.
Think of the benefit of having a tiny 3inch cube with a camera….especially over my not neighbor’s swimming pool.
If the CIA hasn’t talked to SpaceX about putting an appropriately tweaked smart phone camera on all of their birds, I’d be very surprised.
You need better optics than that. Still…to this day…some of GAMBIT’s images are the best
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-8_Gambit_3
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1927/1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-9_Hexagon