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Psyche

Psyche

The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

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Mission Statistics

Launch Date

Oct. 1, 2023

Type

Orbiter

Target

Asteroids and Comets

Status

Future

About the mission

The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.

Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets - including Earth - scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planets' rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth's core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets.

The mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation. The spacecraft's solar-electric propulsion chassis will be built by Maxar (formerly SSL) with a payload that includes an imager, magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer.

For more information on the status of Psyche, visit NASA's Psyche Mission blog.

Science Goals

  • Understand a previously unexplored building block of planet formation: iron cores. 
  • Look inside terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly examining the interior of a differentiated body, which otherwise could not be seen.
  • Explore a new type of world. For the first time, examine a world made not of rock and ice, but metal. 

Science Objectives

  • Determine whether Psyche is a core, or if it is unmelted material.
  • Determine the relative ages of regions of Psyche's surface.
  • Determine whether small metal bodies incorporate the same light elements as are expected in the Earth's high-pressure core.
  • Determine whether Psyche was formed under conditions more oxidizing or more reducing than Earth's core.
  • Characterize Psyche's topography.

Scientific Instruments and Investigations

  • Multispectral Imager
  • Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer
  • Magnetometer
  • X-band Gravity Science Investigation

Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC)

The Psyche mission will test a sophisticated new laser communication technology that encodes data in photons at near-infrared wavelengths (rather than radio waves) to communicate between a probe in deep space and Earth. Using light instead of radio allows the spacecraft to communicate more data in a given amount of time. The DSOC team is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

More about Asteroids and Comets

News .

NASA System Predicts Small Asteroid to Pass Close by Earth This Week

News .

Construction Begins on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter

News .

NASA Program Predicted Impact of Small Asteroid Over Ontario, Canada

News .

As Psyche Mission Moves Forward, NASA Responds to Independent Review

News .

NASA to Discuss Psyche Independent Review Board Results

News .

NASA Continues Psyche Asteroid Mission

Event Oct. 13, 2022 .

Near Earth Objects – Opportunities for Discoveries

News .

NASA’s Asteroid-Striking DART Mission Team Has JPL Members

News .

NASA to Discuss Psyche Asteroid Mission

News .

NASA Announces Launch Delay for Its Psyche Asteroid Mission

ASU Psyche official website
Psyche Facebook
Psyche on Twitter (@MissionToPsyche)
Psyche Mission video
Psyche Team Blog

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