Pull to refresh
Logo
Daily Brief
Following Why Ranks Sign Up
NASA's Psyche mission to a metal asteroid

NASA's Psyche mission to a metal asteroid

New Capabilities

The first attempt to study what may be the exposed iron core of an early planet

August 2029: Scheduled arrival at 16 Psyche

Overview

On Friday, NASA's Psyche spacecraft slipped past Mars at about 12,333 mph, flying within roughly 2,800 miles of the planet's surface. Mars's gravity bent its path and added speed, pointing the probe toward a metal asteroid still 280 million miles away.

Psyche is heading to 16 Psyche, a 173-mile-wide object that may be the bare iron-nickel core of a small planet that never finished forming. If it is, this mission gives humans their first close look at the kind of material that sits at the center of Earth.

Why it matters

Earth's iron core sits 1,800 miles underground. Psyche may let scientists study a planetary core directly for the first time.

Questions about this story

No questions yet — be the first to ask.

Play on this story Voices Debate Predict

Key Indicators

2,800 mi
Closest approach to Mars
How near the spacecraft came to the Martian surface during the May 15 flyby.
12,333 mph
Spacecraft speed at flyby
Velocity relative to Mars during closest approach.
Aug 2029
Scheduled arrival
When Psyche is expected to enter orbit around asteroid 16 Psyche.
173 mi
Width of the target asteroid
16 Psyche is one of the largest objects in the main asteroid belt.
2.2B mi
Total cruise distance
Path length the spacecraft will travel from Earth launch to asteroid arrival.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

Ever wondered what historical figures would say about today's headlines?

Sign up to generate historical perspectives on this story.

Log in Sign Up

Play

Exploring all sides of a story is often best achieved with Play.

Log in to play. Track your picks, climb the leaderboards. Log in Sign Up
Predict 4 ways this could play out. Contrarian picks score more — points lock when the scenario resolves. Log in to play
Timeline Five events from this story — drag them oldest to newest. Log in to play
Connections Sixteen names from the news. Find the four hidden groups of four. Log in to play

People Involved

Lindy Elkins-Tanton
Lindy Elkins-Tanton
Leading the science team from Arizona State University
 Henry Stone
Henry Stone
Running flight operations from JPL
 Nicola Fox
Nicola Fox
Oversees funding and direction of Psyche and other NASA science missions

Organizations Involved

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Federal research center
Builds, operates, and tracks Psyche

JPL is NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system.
Arizona State University
Arizona State University
University research institution
Leads the Psyche science team

ASU runs the science side of the Psyche mission.
Maxar Space Systems
Maxar Space Systems
Aerospace contractor
Built the Psyche spacecraft chassis and propulsion

Maxar built the body of the Psyche spacecraft, including its solar arrays and ion thrusters.

Timeline

January 2017 August 2029

7 events Latest: August 2029
Tap a bar to jump to that date

  1. Scheduled arrival at 16 Psyche

    Latest Milestone

    Psyche is scheduled to enter orbit around the asteroid 16 Psyche in August 2029, beginning a 26-month science campaign at four progressively lower altitudes.

  2. Psyche flies past Mars for gravity assist

    Maneuver

    Psyche passed within roughly 2,800 miles of Mars at about 12,333 mph, using the planet's gravity to bend its path toward the asteroid without burning propellant. The spacecraft also exercised its magnetometer, gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, and imaging instruments, returning the first new science data of the mission.

  3. Laser comms reach beyond Mars distance

    Tech demo

    The DSOC instrument sent engineering data to Earth from 140 million miles away, farther than the average distance from Earth to Mars.

  4. Deep Space Optical Communications sends first laser data

    Tech demo

    A laser instrument riding on Psyche transmitted data to a telescope on Earth from nearly 10 million miles away. It was the first laser communication test from beyond the Moon.

  5. Psyche launches on Falcon Heavy

    Launch

    Psyche lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The spacecraft separated cleanly and JPL acquired its signal an hour later.

  6. NASA delays the launch by a year

    Setback

    NASA postponed Psyche's planned 2022 launch after engineers found that flight software had not been adequately tested before integration. The slip pushed arrival at 16 Psyche from 2026 to 2029.

  7. NASA picks Psyche for its Discovery program

    Decision

    NASA selected Psyche as the 14th mission in its Discovery program of low-cost planetary science missions. The agency committed roughly $850 million to the project at selection.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

October 1989 to December 1995

Galileo's gravity-assist tour to Jupiter (1989)

NASA's Galileo spacecraft launched from the shuttle Atlantis on a path that needed three gravity assists to reach Jupiter. It swung past Venus once and Earth twice over six years, picking up enough speed each time to reach the outer solar system.

Then

Galileo arrived at Jupiter in December 1995. It dropped a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere and orbited the planet for eight years.

Now

Gravity assists became the default way for NASA to send heavy spacecraft to outer planets. Cassini, New Horizons, and Psyche all use the same trick.

Why this matters now

Psyche's Mars flyby is the same maneuver Galileo pioneered. Without it, the spacecraft would need a much larger rocket or much more propellant.

September 2007 to November 2018

Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres

NASA's Dawn spacecraft launched in 2007 to orbit two main-belt asteroids: Vesta from 2011 to 2012, then Ceres from 2015 until the mission ended. It used solar-electric propulsion, the same kind Psyche uses, to travel between them.

Then

Dawn produced the first detailed maps of both bodies. It showed Vesta is differentiated, with a metallic core, and Ceres has a salt-rich crust.

Now

Dawn proved that ion drives can move spacecraft into and out of asteroid orbits. NASA built Psyche on what Dawn learned.

Why this matters now

Psyche's propulsion, science approach, and target type all trace back to Dawn. Dawn answered whether you could orbit two asteroids; Psyche tries to do the same with a third.

February 2000 to February 2001

NEAR Shoemaker at asteroid Eros

NASA's NEAR Shoemaker probe reached the near-Earth asteroid Eros in February 2000 and orbited it for a year. In February 2001 it touched down on the surface, the first soft landing on an asteroid.

Then

NEAR returned the first close images and spectra of an S-type asteroid. The data showed Eros is a loose rubble pile of older material.

Now

The mission opened asteroid science to direct study and led to OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa, and DART. NASA started taking small bodies seriously.

Why this matters now

NEAR is Psyche's grandparent. It proved you can park a spacecraft at an asteroid and do real science. Psyche tries to do the same at a metal target.

Sources

(3)
NASA JPL Space.com Euronews