NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Lifts Off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Mission to a Metal-Rich Asteroid /Part 02

Part 02

On Friday, October 13, 2023, at 10:19 a.m. EDT, NASA's Psyche spacecraft launches from Florida's iconic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. NASA and Kevin O'Connell.

Communication and Propulsion

Psyche uses solar electric propulsion for its six-year, 2.2 billion mile (3.6 billion kilometre) journey to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The effective propulsion system propels the spacecraft with a gentle thrust by ejecting charged atoms, or ions, of the neutral gas xenon. The spacecraft will travel more quickly by using Mars' gravity as a slingshot along the way.

The director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, Laurie Leshin, remarked, "I'm extremely proud of the Psyche team, who overcame numerous hurdles on their path to this great day. The real fun now starts as we speed towards asteroid Psyche to reveal the mysteries of planet formation and evolution.

Mission Timeline:

The initial checkout stage, also known as the commissioning phase, lasts for the first 100 days of the mission to ensure that all flight systems are functioning properly. Making sure the electric thrusters are prepared to start firing continuously across lengthy parts of the trajectory is essential to the checkout.

About six weeks from now, the science equipment, including the magnetometer, gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, and multispectral imager, will begin active checkout. The imager will take its first pictures for calibration during this time, aiming at standard stars and a star cluster at various exposures and with various filters. Then, for the length of the mission, the Psyche team will turn on an automatic web broadcast of publicly visible raw photos.

In around three weeks, when Psyche would be roughly 4.7 million miles (7.5 million km) from Earth, the first chance to turn on the optical communications technology demonstration would present itself. This will be the organization's first test of high-data-rate optical, or laser, communications beyond the Moon. Even though Psyche is hosting the transmitter, no Psyche mission data will be relayed during the tech demo. “Launching with Psyche is an ideal platform to demonstrate NASA's optical communications goal to get high-bandwidth data into deep space," said Dr. Parsun Desai, acting associate administrator, Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), at NASA Headquarters. It's wonderful to know that Deep Space Optical Communications will start testing this crucial capacity for future space exploration in just a few short weeks by beaming data back to Earth. The knowledge we gain will enable us to advance these cutting-edge new technologies and ultimately pursue more audacious space ambitions.

Supplemental Mission Data

The Psyche mission is overseen by Arizona State University. The mission's general administration, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations are all handled by JPL, a part of Caltech in Pasadena. The spaceship chassis for high-power solar electric propulsion was made by Maxar Space in Palo Alto, California.

For the Technology Demonstration Missions programmer within STMD and the Space Communications and Navigation Programmed within the Space Operations Mission Directorate, JPL oversees the Deep Space Optical Communications project. The insight and approval of the launch vehicle as well as management of the launch service for the Psyche mission are under the purview of NASA's Launch Services Programmed, which is housed at Kennedy Space Centre. At the end of a 2.5-year process, NASA approved the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for employment with the organization's most challenging and important missions in early 2023.

The Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, oversees NASA's Discovery Programmed, which includes the 14th mission, Psyche.

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