On Friday, October 13th, NASA launched their newest space probe to the asteroid Psyche. After years of planning and one year delay, the mission is now on track.
Asteroid Psyche
Psyche or its original name 16 Psyche, was discovered in March, 1852. Its diameter is about 140 miles. It orbits around 7.5 million miles away from Earth. It may seem like a typical asteroid in our solar system, weirdly shaped, craters litter its surface, and it spins oddly like an out of control top.
However there is something else that is very different about Psyche from the rest of the asteroids, it's made of metal. Unlike most asteroids that are from rock and dust, Psyche has an unusual amount of iron-nickel metal content. Which happens to be the same material that Earth and its neighboring planets cores are made out of. So scientists believe that Psyche used to be a planet’s core. However the planet that Psyche used to belong to must have been smashed to pieces in the early solar system.
Problems And Delays
NASA approved the idea for a mission to the asteroid in 2018, the spacecraft was named after the asteroid that it was going to. However, Psyche has had its challenges, Covid-19 delayed critical testing and assembling dates. Testing that was supposed to start in 2020 was delayed to 2021. It was planned at the time that Psyche would launch in October 2022, but with a limited testing window and a major budget cut in the mission by Congress in the summer of 2022, the mission seemed over. However, the Psyche team did not want to have the mission canceled, so they delayed the Psyche mission by 12 months and in that time they successfully completed all of the testing and packed the spacecraft up for launch in Florida.
Going Up Close And Personal
When the Psyche mission was launched the rocket pointed it in the direction of Mars, and sent it off towards the Red Planet. NASA plans to have the spacecraft fly by Mars and use its gravity to shoot it towards Psyche. However even going a shocking 15 kilometers per second (or nine miles per second), it will still take the spacecraft six years to reach Psyche. Once it does it will enter in a low orbit and start a 21 month mapping mission. The spacecraft will use its instruments to try and detect any unusual minerals inside the asteroid. The spacecraft will orbit as close as 75 miles above the surface of Psyche.