The spacecraft is now beyond the distance of Mars and is using ion propulsion to accelerate toward a metal-rich asteroid, where it will orbit and collect science data.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft passed its six-month checkup with a clean bill of health, and there are no snags now. Navigators are firing up its futuristic-looking electric thrusters, which emit a blue glow almost non-stop as the orbiter crawls farther into deep space.
The spacecraft launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on October 13, 2023. After leaving our atmosphere, Psyche maxed out its rocket power and flew beyond the orbit of Mars.
For the next year, the spacecraft will be in what mission planners call full cruise mode, when its electric thrusters take over and push the orbiter toward the asteroid belt. The thrusters work by expelling charged atoms, or ions, of xenon, emitting a brilliant blue glow that trails the spacecraft.
They are part of Psyches’ highly efficient solar electric propulsion system, which is powered by sunlight. The thrust created by the ionized xenon is mild, but it gets the job done. Even in full cruise mode, the thrust exerted by the thrusters is about what you would feel holding three-quarters in your hand.
The orbiter is now more than 190 million miles (300 million kilometers) away and moving at a speed of 23 miles per second (37 kilometers per second), relative to Earth. That’s about 84,000 mph (135,000 km/h). Over time, with no atmospheric drag to slow it down, Psyche will accelerate to speeds of up to 124,000 mph (200,000 km/h).
The spacecraft will reach the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029 and make observations from orbit for about two years. The data it collects will help scientists better understand the formation of rocky planets with metal cores, including Earth. Scientists have evidence that the asteroid, which is about 173 miles (280 kilometers) across at its widest point, may be the partial core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet.
The flight team used Psyches the first 100 days in space to perform a thorough check of all spacecraft systems. All engineering systems are working as expected and all three science instruments have operated without a hitch. The magnetometer is working so well that it was able to detect an explosion of charged particles from the Sun, as did the gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer. And last December, the twin cameras on the imaging instrument captured their first images.
“Up to this point, we have activated and checked the various pieces of equipment needed to complete the mission, and we can report that they are working beautifully,” said Henry Stone, Psyche project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. South, which manages the mission. We are now on our way and look forward to a close flyby of Mars.
That’s because the spacecraft’s trajectory will take it back toward the Red Planet in the spring of 2026. The spacecraft will drop its thrusters as it heads toward Mars, using the planets’ gravity to slingshot out. From there, the thrusters return to full cruise mode. Next stop: asteroid Psyche.
Meanwhile, the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration aboard the spacecraft will continue to test its capability. The experiment already exceeded expectations when, in April, it transmitted test data from more than 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away at a speed of 267 megabits per second to a lander on Earth, a rate barely comparable to the download speed of broadband internet.
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is responsible for overall mission management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, Calif., provided the chassis of the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft.
JPL manages the DSOC for the Technology Demonstration Missions program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Space Communication and Navigation program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, which is managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, managed the launch service.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/psyche
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Charles Blue
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-802-5345
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / charles.e.blue@nasa.gov
2024-069
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Image Source : www.nasa.gov