The thing about long-running space missions is that just as you forget about them, a major update hits your eyes and ears, bringing said mission back into focus. Just like what happened last week with something called Psyche.
First and foremost, Psyche is the name of one”of the most interesting objects in the main asteroid belt.“The asteroid itself, a potato-shaped piece of floating debris, is thought to be extremely metal-rich, with 30 to 60 percent of its body made of such materials.
Given all this, it’s likely that Psyche isn’t technically an asteroid, but a partial core of a planetesimal, the building blocks of an early planet. Knowing more about this place would allow us humans to better understand the origins of the solar system and our place in it.
The place is so interesting that NASA devised a special mission to go there and find out more. Also called Psyche, the spacecraft tasked with this mission is about the size of a tennis court and was launched last October from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Now, the asteroid Psyche is three times farther from the Sun than our own planet, or over 257 million miles (413 million km) from Earth, in the vast space between Mars and Jupiter. This means that Psyche would need the spacecraft until 2029 (until recently 2028 was the set date) to reach its destination.
Normally, such a long flight would be quite boring for the rest of us, not directly related to the mission, but Psyche is far from a simple explorer. It is also a testing ground for various other technologies and systems, so it has been constantly in the loop since its launch.
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
One of the new technologies that the spacecraft is supposed to test is the so-called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC). This is a bit of hardware to demonstrate that lasers can be used to facilitate communication over long distances and at much higher speeds than current radio frequency systems.
The most recent test of the DSOC system, conducted in April, meant the spacecraft sent data at 267 Mbps from a distance of 140 million miles (226 million km). The data package from previous tests included digital versions of Arizona State University’s Psyche artwork and a 15-second video about a cat named Taters, among other things.
Another technology that Psyche has to test, this time in a more active way, is the solar electric propulsion system it uses.
After leaving Earth, Psyche used the momentum provided by the launch vehicle to, as it were, follow the path of the planet Mars. Now that she had passed this point, the solar electric propulsion system turned on to accelerate the ship. And he’s been doing it for a while, with plans to do it.”continuously” in nearest future.
The propulsion technology includes large solar arrays designed to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity. This, combined with the ship’s propulsion, xenon, fired by Psyche jets, is what allows travel deeper into Sol.
When xenon-charged atoms are pushed through the jets, “a bright blue glow trailing behind the spacecraft” is broadcast, so we rarely enjoy the celestial spectacle.
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
According to NASA, “the pull created by the ionized xenon is subtle, but it does the job” moving the ship forward in its current cruise mode. In the numbers, the spacecraft is currently traveling at 84,000 mph (135,000 km/h), but since there is no atmospheric drag to slow it down, the accumulated acceleration will eventually allow it to reach speeds of up to 124,000 mph (200,000 km/h) .
Psyche is currently located 190 million miles (300 million km) from our world. It’s only six months into its more than six-year mission, but in the meantime, there are more exciting events on the horizon.
For example, in 2026, the nature of Psyche’s trajectory will bring it back to Mars, allowing it to make a close flyby of the Red Planet. Its ion thrusters shut down at that point as the ship uses Mars’ gravity to slingshot.
Once in orbit around the asteroid of the same name, it will begin collecting data for up to two years. It will use a range of instruments for this task, including a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, a multispectral imager and a magnetometer.
All these instruments have already been powered and tested. For example, the magnetometer and two spectrometers have already detected a solar flare of charged particles, while the sensor (which is a fancy name for a pair of cameras) has taken a total of 68 images of the star field in the constellation Pisces.
Psyche will never return home, and at this point it is unclear if she will have enough hooves left in her to be remotely repurposed for any other mission.