NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, launched on 13 October 2023, is flying to an unusual asteroid of the same name, about 220 km across, in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche appears to be rich in metal, and it may be part of the iron core of a small world whose rocky outer layers were stripped away by collisions billions of years ago. Studying it is a way to look at the kind of core that lies, out of reach, deep inside the Earth. The probe is pushed by electric thrusters that glow blue, very gentle but very efficient, and it used Mars’s gravity in 2026. It should reach the asteroid in 2029.
Photo · NASA/Frank Michaux, public domain · source
About Psyche
Agency
NASA
Launched
2023-10-13
Status
Cruise
Goals
Psyche is the first mission to an asteroid whose surface contains a large amount of metal. Orbiting it for about two years, the spacecraft will image and map the asteroid and work out what it is made of. Scientists think Psyche may be part of the iron core of an early planetary building block, which would give an indirect look at cores like Earth's, which can never be reached.
Today
Mars gravity assist 2026-05-15 at 4,609 km; all three instruments tested successfully. Thrusting resumes 'later this fall' (2026).
Mostly iron and nickel mixed with rock, as far as we know; its supposed value in headlines is a fantasy, since nobody can bring it back.
How do electric thrusters work?
Solar power charges xenon gas and an electric field shoots it out at great speed; the push is as weak as the weight of a sheet of paper, but it lasts for months.
Where the numbers come from
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