The idea of time travel has always ignited our imagination, whether we’re talking about scientists or even ordinary people. Who wouldn’t want to go back in time and vote for a different politician, buy some other car, or marry another person? Such an offer surely seems tempting if it would someday materialize itself.
However, not getting to jump to another timeline yet doesn’t mean that we can’t “trick” the laws of nature a bit. That’s what NASA scientists seem to have in mind when it comes to the upcoming Lucy mission.
Lucy will be the first mission to the Trojan asteroids
NASA’s Lucy mission has great plans for the near future. It aims to become the first mission of the American space agency that will reach the Trojan asteroids. This means that the spacecraft will arrive in those regions of the Solar System where Jupiter shares the same orbit as some asteroids.
Last but not least, Lucy will also somehow travel back in time, as a new article by SciTechDaily.com reveals. The lift-off takes place in the current month, while the entire cosmic journey will last for 12 years.
The Lucy spacecraft has evolved tremendously since it was first conceived a few years ago. Invoking karma or some other form of fate is not something unusual.
Harold Levison, who is principal investigator, declared as quoted by SciTechDaily.com:
I often joke that I’ve spent my career worshipping at the feet of the gods of celestial mechanics,
Now they’re paying us back for that devotion.
Astronomers also hope that Lucy will uncover some clues of the existence of alien life on Trojan asteroids. Organisms could theoretically emerge and evolve on the surface of an asteroid.
As scientists hope to find alien life forms on Mars, it’s nice to see that they also rely on other objects from the Solar System, for that matter.
