The Terminal Tracking Camera System on the NASA Lucy Trojan Asteroid Discovery Mission

Abstract

The Terminal Tracking Camera system (TTCam) on the NASA Lucy Trojan asteroid Discovery mission consists of a pair of block redundant cameras and their associated electronics that are mounted on the spacecraft’s Instrument Pointing Platform and co-boresighted with the rest of the mission’s science payload instruments. The primary function of the TTCams is as a navigation system designed to provide an autonomous onboard late pre-encounter update of the location of each asteroid flyby target relative to the spacecraft. However, once the terminal tracking function is complete, the TTCam system will also provide 11.0°×8.2° field of view broadband (425-675 nm) images during the close approach phase of each asteroid flyby that will be used for scientific analyses like shape modeling and assessment of each target’s geology and topography. This paper provides an overview of the TTCam cameras and electronics, the science-focused requirements that the system is designed to meet, pointers to pre-flight calibration and in-flight calibration details for the cameras, as well as a high-level summary of the kinds of science that these images will enable for the mission.