Psyche mission

October 16, 2023

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft was launched recently is on its voyage to an asteroid of the same name.
Psyche asteroid is a metal-rich world that could tell us more about the formation of rocky planets.
By August 2029, the spacecraft will begin to orbit the 173-mile-wide (279-kilometer-wide) asteroid – the only metal-class asteroid ever to be explored.
Because of Psyche’s high iron-nickel metal content, scientists think it may be the partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet.
The goal is a 26-month science investigation.
For its six-year, 2-billion-mile (3.6-billion-kilometer) trip to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Psyche relies on solar electric propulsion.
The efficient propulsion system works by expelling charged atoms, or ions, of the neutral gas xenon to create a thrust that gently propels the spacecraft.
Along the way, the spacecraft will use Mars’ gravity as a slingshot to speed it along on its journey.
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission.
Psyche is the 14^th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.