Psyche (spacecraft)

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. 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. == Target ==

16 Psyche is the heaviest known M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of , and may be an exposed iron core of a protoplanet, the remnant of a violent collision with another object that stripped off its mantle and crust. Recent studies show that it is "a mixed metal and silicate world". Another study considers it to be either a metal core of a protoplanet or "a differentiated world with a regolith composition ... peppered with localized regions of high metal concentrations". Radar observations of the asteroid from Earth indicate an iron–nickel composition. The historical asteroid symbol for Psyche, a butterfly's wing topped by a star (), may have influenced the mission insignia. == Mission overview ==

The Psyche spacecraft is designed with solar electric propulsion, and the scientific payload includes a multispectral imager, a magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer. The mission is designed to perform 21 months of science. The spacecraft was built by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with SSL (formerly Space Systems/Loral) and Arizona State University. It was proposed that the rocket launch might be shared with a separate mission named Athena, that would perform a single flyby of asteroid 2 Pallas, the third-largest asteroid in the Solar System. In May 2020, it was announced that the Falcon Heavy carrying Psyche would include two smallsat secondary payloads to study the Martian atmosphere and binary asteroids, named EscaPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) and Janus respectively, Janus was later removed from the Psyche mission as well on November 18, 2022, after an assessment determined that it would not be on the required trajectory to meet its science requirements as a result of ''Psyche's'' new launch period. Science goals and objectives Differentiation is a fundamental process in shaping many asteroids and all terrestrial planets, and direct exploration of a core could greatly enhance understanding of this process. The Psyche mission aims to characterize 16 Psyche's geology, shape, elemental composition, magnetic field, and mass distribution. It is expected that this mission will increase the understanding of planetary formation and interiors. Specifically, the science goals for the mission are: • Understand a previously unexplored building block of planet formation: iron cores. • Look inside terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly examining the interior of a differentiated body, which otherwise could not be seen. • Explore a new type of world, made of metal. The science questions this mission aims to address are: • Is 16 Psyche the stripped core of a differentiated planetesimal, or was it formed as an iron-rich body? What were the building blocks of planets? Did planetesimals that formed close to the Sun have very different bulk compositions? • If 16 Psyche was stripped of its mantle, when and how did that occur? • If 16 Psyche was once molten, did it solidify from the inside out, or the outside in? • Did 16 Psyche produce a magnetic dynamo as it cooled? • What are the major alloy elements that coexist in the iron metal of the core? • What are the key characteristics of the geologic surface and global topography? Does 16 Psyche look radically different from known stony and icy bodies? • How do craters on a metal body differ from those in rock or ice? == Instruments ==

Payloads installed on Psyche are: == Spacecraft ==

The spacecraft uses the Space Systems/Loral (SSL) 1300 bus platform. The thruster is nominally rated at 4.5 kW operating power, but it will also operate for long durations at about 900 watts. The SPT-140 thruster was first tested in the US at the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory in 1997, and later as a 3.5 kW unit in 2002 as part of the Air Force Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology program. Using solar electric thrusters will allow the spacecraft to arrive at 16 Psyche (located 3.3 astronomical units from Earth) much faster, while consuming less than 10% of the propellant it would need using conventional chemical propulsion. Power Electricity will be generated by bilateral solar panels in an X-shaped configuration, with five panels on each side. Prior to the mission being moved forward with a new trajectory, the panels were to be arranged in straight lines, with only four panels on each side of the spacecraft. 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 will continue as the spacecraft travels 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 DSOC unit, which needs about 75 Watts. It is hoped to advance DSOC to technology readiness level 6. 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. Flight hardware 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. == Operations ==

Launch and trajectory ''Psyche's'' launch period opened at October 5, 2023, with instantaneous launch windows every day until October 25. The launch was delayed an additional day to October 13 due to bad weather. Psyche launched on October 13, 2023, at 14:19 UTC, on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. A carrier wave signal from the spacecraft was received by ground controllers just after separation, providing information on spacecraft status prior to solar array deployment. Full communication with the spacecraft was established at 15:50 am UTC. The spacecraft then began a 100-day commissioning phase, during which all systems and instruments are tested and calibrated. The cost of the launch was US$117 million. 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. File:Psyche's Mission Plan.jpg|Mission plan of Psyche File:Psyche Orbital Operations.jpg|Orbital operations of Psyche Ground stations for laser link The laser beams from the spacecraft will be received by a ground telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. Laser beams to the spacecraft will be sent from a smaller telescope at JPL Table Mountain Facility. ==Construction and pre-launch testing==

Testing Testing began on the spacecraft in December 2021. These tests included but were not limited to electromagnetic testing and TVAC, or thermal vacuum chamber testing. The electromagnetic testing was conducted to ensure that the electronics and magnetic components that make up the spacecraft will not interfere with each other while conducting the mission. The TVAC testing was conducted inside the 85- by 25-foot vacuum chamber at JPL's facility in Southern California, which replicates the lack of air in space. This allows for the engineers and scientist to observe the effects of the space environment on the orbiter. Inside the TVAC, the JPL employees can observe how well the spacecraft reacts to harsh conditions. Without air surrounding the spacecraft, the heating and cooling of the unit is affected. The spacecraft will be hot in the hours after launch, while it is still close to Earth and facing the Sun, especially with its electronics running, and later, when the spacecraft gets farther from the Sun, it faces intense cold, especially when flying in 16 Psyche's shadow. Vibration tests of the spacecraft by scientists and engineers ensure it can survive the extreme conditions of the rocket launch. They also performed shock testing to ensure the spacecraft could survive the shock of separation from the rocket's second stage. Finally, they performed acoustic testing on the craft. The sound of the launch can be so violent that it can damage the hardware, so intense acoustic testing was performed to ensure mission success. == References ==