New probe to go the asteroid Psyche

   NASA is planning an asteroid mission to Psyche, which is located in the asteroid belt.
   Psyche is both the name of an asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter and the name of a NASA space mission to visit that asteroid, led by Arizona State University.
   The asteroid Psyche is different from millions of other asteroids because it appears to have an exposed nickel-iron surface. Researchers at Arizona State University, Tempe, in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, believe the asteroid could actually be the leftover core of an early planet. And, since we can't directly explore any planet's core, including our own, Psyche offers a rare look into the violent history of our solar system.
Psyche probe
Artist's concept of the Psyche spacecraft, which will conduct a direct exploration of an asteroid thought to be a stripped planetary core. Image credit: NASA/JPL
   "Psyche is a unique body because it is, by far, the largest metal asteroid out there; it's about the size of Massachusetts," David Oh, the mission's lead project systems engineer at JPL, said.

Psyche Trajectory
   The Psyche spacecraft is targeted to launch in summer 2022 and travel to the asteroid using solar-electric (low-thrust) propulsion. It will do a Mars flyby for gravity-assist in 2023. The probe will arrive in 2026. It will spend 21 months at the asteroid, mapping it and studying its properties.

Psyche Orbit
   Once the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid in 2026, plans call for it to spend 21 months at the asteroid, performing science operations from four staging orbits, which become successively closer.

The Spacecraft
   The Psyche spacecraft and solar panels, which will be built by SSL, are about the size of a singles tennis court. The body of the spacecraft is slightly bigger than a Smart Car and about as tall as a regulation basketball hoop. The spacecraft will include a Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer, a Multispectral Imager, a Magnetometer and an x-band radio telecommunications system.
   The Psyche mission will also test a sophisticated new laser communication technology, called Deep Space Optical Communication, that encodes data in photons to communicate between a probe in deep space and Earth.

Where are we now?
   A space mission typically has six phases, A-F. The Psyche mission is currently in “Phase C,” which lasts until January 2021. In this phase, the mission is focused on final design and subsystem fabrication, assembly, and testing.
   Once the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid in 2026, plans call for it to spend 21 months at the asteroid, performing science operations from four staging orbits, which become successively closer.

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