Journey to the Metal World Psyche To Launch in 2022
“We challenged the mission design team to explore if an earlier launch date could provide a more efficient trajectory to the asteroid Psyche, and they came through in a big way,” said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This will enable us to fulfill our science objectives sooner and at a reduced cost.”
Psyche follows an orbit in the outer part of the main asteroid belt, at an average distance from the Sun of 3 astronomical units (AU); Earth orbits at 1 AU. As asteroids go, Psyche is large (about 150 miles in diameter), dense (7,000 kg/m³), and made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal. It is the only known place in our solar system where we can examine directly what is almost certainly a metallic core.
Discovered in 1852, Psyche is made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal and is about three times farther away from the sun than Earth. The asteroid measures about 130 miles (210 kilometers) in diameter and is thought to be made of mostly metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core.
“The biggest advantage is the excellent trajectory, which gets us there about twice as fast and is more cost effective,” said Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. “We are all extremely excited that NASA was able to accommodate this earlier launch date. The world will see this amazing metal world so much sooner.”
The revised trajectory is more efficient, as it eliminates the need for an Earth gravity assist, which ultimately shortens the cruise time. In addition, the new trajectory stays farther from the sun, reducing the amount of heat protection needed for the spacecraft. The trajectory will still include a Mars gravity assist in 2023.
“The change in plans is a great boost for the team and the mission,” said Psyche Project Manager Henry Stone at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “Our mission design team did a fantastic job coming up with this ideal launch opportunity.”
“By increasing the size of the solar arrays, the spacecraft will have the power it needs to support the higher velocity requirements of the updated mission,” said SSL Psyche Program Manager Steve Scott.
The Psyche Mission
Psyche, an asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, is made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal. As such, it offers a unique look into the violent collisions that created Earth and the terrestrial planets.
Credit: ASU
The Psyche Mission was selected for flight earlier this year under NASA’s Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system.
The scientific goals of the Psyche mission are to understand the building blocks of planet formation and explore firsthand a wholly new and unexplored type of world. The mission team seeks to determine whether Psyche is the core of an early planet, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to Earth’s core, and what its surface is like. The spacecraft’s instrument payload will include magnetometers, multispectral imagers, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer.
Karin Valentine, Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe
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