This artist’s concept shows NASA’s Psyche spacecraft headed toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft was launched in October 2023 and will reach its destination in 2029. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
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This artist’s concept shows NASA’s Psyche spacecraft headed toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft was launched in October 2023 and will reach its destination in 2029. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has passed its six-month checkup with a clean bill of health and is now maintenance-free. Navigators fire its futuristic-looking electric thrusters, which emit a blue glow, almost non-stop as the orbiter hurtles ever deeper into 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 boost and landed outside the orbit of Mars.
For the next year, the spacecraft will be in what mission planners call “full cruise,” when its electric thrusters will take over and propel the orbiter toward the asteroid belt. The thrusters work by ejecting charged xenon atoms or ions, emitting a brilliant blue glow that trails behind the spacecraft.
They are part of Psyche’s incredibly efficient solar electric propulsion system, powered by sunlight. The thrust created by the ionized xenon is gentle, but it gets the job done. Even in full cruise mode, thruster pressure is about what you’d feel holding three-quarters in your hand.
This photo shows a working electric thruster identical to those used to power NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. The blue glow comes from charged xenon atoms or ions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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This photo shows a working electric thruster identical to those used to power NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. The blue glow comes from charged xenon atoms or ions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The orbiter is now more than 190 million miles (300 million kilometers) away and traveling at 23 miles per second (37 kilometers per second) relative to Earth. That’s about 84,000 mph (135,000 km/h). Eventually, 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 will conduct 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, whose diameter at its widest point is about 280 kilometers, could be a partial core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet.
Clean state of health
The flight team used Psyche’s first 100 days in space to conduct a full check of all the spacecraft’s systems. All engineering systems are working as expected, and the three science instruments are running smoothly.
The magnetometer works so well that it was able to detect an eruption of charged particles from the sun, just as the gamma ray and neutron spectrometers did. And last December, the imaging instrument’s dual cameras captured their first images.
This graphic shows the trajectory followed by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels to the asteroid Psyche. Key main mission milestones are highlighted, including Mars gravity assist in May 2026. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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This graphic shows the trajectory followed by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels to the asteroid Psyche. Key main mission milestones are highlighted, including Mars gravity assist in May 2026. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Up to this point, we’ve been plugging in and testing the various pieces of equipment needed to complete the mission, and we can report that they’re working great,” said Henry Stone, Psyche project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is managing the mission.
“We are now on our way and looking forward to a close flyby of Mars soon.”
That’s because the spacecraft’s trajectory will take it back toward the Red Planet in the spring of 2026. The spacecraft will turn off its thrusters as it flies toward Mars, using the planet’s gravity to eject itself from the slingshot. From there, the thrusters return to full cruise mode. Next stop: asteroid Psyche.
Meanwhile, the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration on the spacecraft will continue to test its mettle. The experiment already exceeded expectations when it transmitted test data from a distance of more than 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) at 267 megabits per second to a downlink station on Earth in April — a transmission speed comparable to broadband Internet download speeds .