Lucy Scientific Discovery Inc. Price & Performance (LSDI)

NASA’s Lucy mission has sent back detailed images of asteroid Donaldjohanson, unveiling a peanut-shaped object with complex geological features. The flyby, which occurred between Mars and Jupiter, serves as a key rehearsal for Lucy’s upcoming encounters with Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, promising fresh insights into planetary formation processes.12

On Easter Sunday, NASA’s Lucy probe completed a high-speed flyby of asteroid Donaldjohanson, passing just 960 kilometers away at nearly 50,000 km/h. This maneuver validated the spacecraft’s tracking and imaging systems, setting the stage for its primary mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids starting in 2027.32

Lucy’s successful close pass of asteroid Donaldjohanson not only advances planetary science but also highlights long-term prospects for asteroid mining. By analyzing the composition of such bodies, NASA is laying groundwork for potential future resource extraction, a field gaining interest despite uncertain commercial timelines.21