L’TES

Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer
MISSION: Lucy
Launch: October 2021
Arrival: April 2025
Currently: En-Route to Target Asteroids

What is it?

The Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer, or L’TES for short, is an instrument on board NASA’s Lucy spacecraft. With a design heritage from several successful previous spectrometers, L’TES is a robust and proven instrument for operations on the mission.

What does it do?

The Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) will provide temperature measurements of each Jupiter Trojan asteroid the spacecraft encounters. In addition, L’TES will collect spectral information using thermal infrared observations from 4 to 50 micrometers’ wavelength.

Why is it significant?

The Jupiter Trojan asteroids are thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, and they serve as time capsules from the birth of our solar system more than 4 billion years ago.

Science Objectives

What were the initial stages, conditions, and processes of solar system formation?
How did the giant planets form, and is there evidence that they migrated to new orbital positions?
What governed their formation, and what roles did bombardment by large projectiles play?
What were the sources of primordial organic matter?

Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. Lucy will launch in October 2021 and, with boosts from Earth's gravity, will complete a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids — a Main Belt asteroid and six Trojans. Lucy’s complex path will take it to both clusters of Trojans (one orbiting ahead of Jupiter, the other behind) and give us our first close-up view of all three major types of bodies in these clusters.

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On January 4, 2017, NASA selected two missions in its Discovery program. One of them, named Lucy, will journey out to explore the swarms of asteroids that circle the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. Philip Christensen, Regents’ Professor in ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration was chosen by NASA to build the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) for the spacecraft.

L’TES will provide temperature measurements of each Jupiter Trojan asteroid the mission encounters. It will also make spectral maps and collect information on the asteroids’ surface properties by using thermal infrared data from 4 to 50 micrometers.

Instrument Gallery

Meet the Group

Principal Investigator

Philip Christensen
Arizona State University

Engineering Team

Saadat Anwar, Software Engineer
Arizona State University

Courtnie Besich, Administrative Support
Arizona State University

Heather Bowles, Configuration/Quality
Arizona State University

Stillman Chase, Consultant
Arizona State University

Ryan Fagan, Student Worker
Arizona State University

Zoltan Farkas, Mechanical Engineer
Arizona State University

Tara Fisher, Project Administrator
Arizona State University

Andrew Holmes, Mechanical Engineer
Arizona State University

Russell Hudyma, Consultant
Arizona State University

Ian Kubik, Mechanical Engineer
Arizona State University

Edgar Madrill, Senior Optical Engineer
Arizona State University

Greg Mehall, Project Engineer
Arizona State University

Mark Miner, Thermal Engineer
Arizona State University

Bill O'Donnell, Opto/Mechanical Technician
Arizona State University

Carlos Ortiz, Thermal Engineer
Arizona State University

Mehul Patel, Project Manager
Arizona State University

Dan Pelham, Lead Opto/Mechanical Engineer
Arizona State University

Nick Piacentine, IT Manager
Arizona State University

Ken Shamordola, Consultant
Arizona State University

MarKetta Roemke, Administrative Assistant
Arizona State University

Tom Tourville, Opto/Mechanical Engineer
Arizona State University

Tom Wolverton, Mech/Structural Engineer
Arizona State University

Rob Woodward, Manufacturing Engineer
Arizona State University

Graduate Students

Jon Hill
Arizona State University

Alexandra Huff
Arizona State University

Aditya Khuller
Arizona State University

Sean Peters
Arizona State University

Sarah Rogers
Arizona State University

Jayanth Serla
Arizona State University

Subcontractor

Brian Giesinger, Avionics Engineer
AZ Space Technologies

Dawn Gregory, Quality Manager
AZ Space Technologies

Val Ivanitski, Project Manager
AZ Space Technologies

Igor Lazbin, GNC and Software Engineer
AZ Space Technologies

Jennifer Lazbin, Electrical & FPGA Engineer
AZ Space Technologies

Gregor Mathis, Test Engineer
AZ Space Technologies

Andrew McLaine, Avionics Engineer
AZ Space Technologies

Bob Roebuck, Electrical Technician
AZ Space Technologies