Apps

Psyche — news, coverage & facts — IJR

History

The proposal for the Psyche mission was submitted by Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a principal investigator at Arizona State University, as part of a call for proposals for NASA's Discovery Program missions 13 and 14 that closed in February 2015. It was shortlisted on September 30, 2015, as one of five finalists, and awarded US$3 million for further concept development.

On January 4, 2017, Psyche was selected for the 14th Discovery mission, with launch set for 2023. In May 2017, the launch date was moved up to target a more efficient trajectory, to July 2022 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle with a January 31, 2026 arrival, following a Mars gravity assist on May 23, 2023.

In June 2022 NASA found that the late delivery of the testing equipment and Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) flight software for the Psyche spacecraft did not give them enough time to complete the required testing, and decided to delay the launch, with future windows available in 2023 and 2024 to rendezvous with the asteroid in 2029 and 2030, respectively.

On October 28, 2022, NASA announced that Psyche was targeting a launch period opening on October 10, 2023, which would correspond with an arrival at the asteroid in August 2029.

An independent review of the delays at JPL reported in November 2022 found understaffing, insufficient planning, and communications issues among engineers and with management. The VERITAS Venus mission was delayed to free up staff to focus on Psyche.

On April 18, 2023, JPL's mission page for Psyche was updated to reflect a new launch date of October 5, 2023. On September 28, 2023, the launch was again delayed to no earlier than October 12, 2023, due to an unspecified issue with the spacecraft. After one additional delay due to bad weather, Psyche was launched successfully on October 13, 2023.

An update in May 2024 reported the spacecraft was in good health and on track to complete its mission on the planned timeline along with commencing fire of its xenon thrusters.

In April 2025, Psyche experienced an unexpected drop in the pressure of its xenon propulsion system. The spacecraft paused its thrusting while the problem was under investigation and its system engineers considered resorting to the spacecraft's backup redundancy fuel line in order to continue the probe's thrust operation. Following a switch to the backup fuel line in May, full thruster operation resumed on June 16, 2025.

On May 15, 2026, Psyche successfully flew by Mars as part of a gravity-assist maneuver that adjusted its orbital tilt around the Sun, allowing the probe and its path to align with the orbital plane of asteroid Psyche. The probe flew as close as 4,500 km (2,800 mi) above the surface of the Red Planet. The probe used its multispectral imager instrument to image the planet. Because Psyche approached Mars at a high phase angle, the planet appeared as a thin crescent before the close flyby, illuminated by sunlight reflected from its surface. Images taken by the spacecraft’s multispectral cameras showed the crescent appearing brighter and stretching farther around Mars than expected because sunlight was strongly scattered by the planet’s dusty atmosphere.

Laser communications experiment

The spacecraft is testing an experimental laser communication technology called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC). It is hoped that the device will increase spacecraft communications performance and efficiency by 10 to 100 times over conventional means. The DSOC experiment is NASA's first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth–Moon system. DSOC is a system that consists of a flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver. New technologies have been implemented in each of these elements. The transceiver is mounted on the Psyche spacecraft. The DSOC technology demonstration began shortly after launch and continued as the spacecraft traveled from Earth to its gravity-assist flyby of Mars in 2026. DSOC has showcased its capabilities by sending data at up to 2 megabits per second, from distances beyond the orbit of Mars. DSOC operations proceeded for one year after launch, with extended-mission opportunities in 2025. Palomar Observatory's Hale Telescope received the high-rate data downlink from the DSOC flight transceiver.

The Discovery program solicitation offered mission projects an extra $30 M if they would host and test the 25 kilograms (55 lb) DSOC unit, which needs about 75 Watts. It is hoped to advance DSOC to technology readiness level 6. The test-runs of the laser equipment occurred over distances of 0.2 to 2.7 astronomical units (AU) on the outward-bound probe. The first successful test of the system occurred on December 11, 2023, when a cat video of an employee's cat playing with a laser pointer was streamed back to Earth from a distance of 31 million kilometers. The video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, sent at the system's maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps). On the night of December 4, the project demonstrated downlink bit rates of 62.5 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s, and 267 Mbit/s, which is comparable to broadband internet download speeds. The team was able to download a total of 1.3 terabits of data during that time. As a comparison, NASA's Magellan mission to Venus downlinked 1.2 terabits during its entire mission from 1990 to 1994.

During a test on April 8, 2024, the spacecraft transmitted data at a maximum rate of 25 Mbit/s over a distance of 1.5 AU. This easily surpassed the project's goal of proving that at least 1 Mbit/s was possible at the distance of 226 million kilometres (1.51 AU).

Initial results and further plans have been published as of early 2025. Downlink was demonstrated up to 2.7 AU, with rates that depend on distance but exceed 6.25 Mbit/second. Uplink was demonstrated at a fixed rate of 1.8 kbit/s over distances of 0.2–3.3 AU.

The DSOC flight laser transceiver features a near-infrared laser transmitter to send high-rate data to the ground system, and a sensitive photon-counting camera to receive a ground-transmitted laser. The transceiver's 8.6-inch (22-centimeter) aperture telescope is mounted on an assembly of struts and actuators that stabilizes the optics from spacecraft vibrations. The flight hardware is fitted with a sunshade and protrudes from the side of the spacecraft, making it one of Psyche's easily identifiable features.

A high-power near-infrared laser transmitter at JPL's Table Mountain facility near Wrightwood, California, acts as an uplink by transmitting a modulated laser beam to the flight transceiver to demonstrate the transmission of low-rate data. The uplink laser also acts as a beacon for the flight transceiver to lock onto. The downlink data sent back by the DSOC transceiver on Psyche is collected by the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, using a sensitive superconducting nanowire photon-counting receiver to demonstrate high-rate data transfer.

JPL has also experimented with adding mirrors to some of its existing RF antennas of the NASA Deep Space Network. This can allow simultaneous radio and optical communication with a spacecraft. These experimental antennas have successfully received optical downlink signals from Psyche.

Orbit regimes

The approach sequence will begin in May 2029, when the first navigation images and measurements of 16 Psyche will be taken, the asteroid still just a few pixels wide. The spacecraft will then use its electric propulsion system to position itself to be captured by the asteroid's gravity, which is expected to occur in late July 2029. At this point, the first close-up images of 16 Psyche will be taken, with the asteroid appearing about 500 pixels across. Over the next 20 days the spacecraft will maneuver itself to enter the first of four science orbits.

Psyche is scheduled to enter orbit around 16 Psyche in August 2029. The spacecraft will orbit the asteroid at four different altitudes, which are named alphabetically from highest (A) to lowest (D). In the original mission plan, the spacecraft would progress through the orbits sequentially from highest to lowest. After the 2022 launch delay, the mission plan was updated to reflect the new 2029 arrival date, which meant the spacecraft would arrive at the asteroid at a different point in its orbit around the Sun. In the new mission plan, Psyche will initially enter Orbit A, then descend to Orbit B1, then Orbit D, back out to Orbit C, and finally it will move out to Orbit B2 (the second portion of Orbit B). This redesign ensures that the asteroid's surface is correctly illuminated by the Sun during Orbit B.

Its first regime, Orbit A, will see the spacecraft enter a 700 km (430 mi) orbit for magnetic field characterization and preliminary mapping for a duration of 56 days. It will then descend to Orbit B, set at 303 km (188 mi) altitude for 92 days, for topography and magnetic field characterization. It will then descend to Orbit D, which is the lowest orbit at 75 km (47 mi) and is also uniquely inclined to allow direct view of the asteroid's equator (compared to the other orbits that go around its poles), for 100 days to determine the chemical composition of the surface using its gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers. After that it will ascend to Orbit C at 190 km (120 mi) altitude for 100 days to perform gravity investigations and continue magnetic field observations. Finally, the orbiter will return to Orbit B for 100 days, to finish mapping the portion of the asteroid's surface that was under darkness during the first portion of Orbit B. It will also acquire continued imaging, gravity, and magnetic field mapping. In total, the prime mission is expected to last 26 months, ending in November 2031. At the end of the mission, the spacecraft will be left in orbit around the asteroid.

Psyche

Comments

Psyche

Comments

Psyche across IJR

Article

Notable quotes

Notable quotes

Article

History

Target

Mission overview

Science goals and objectives

Instruments

Spacecraft

Propulsion

Power

Laser communications experiment

Operations

Launch and trajectory

Mars flyby

Orbit regimes

Ground stations for laser link

Construction and pre-launch testing

Psyche across IJR