NASA’s Psyche Mission Takes Off

Image from NASA

Embarking on the Journey to a Planet Core Remnant

On October 13, 2023, the Psyche spacecraft launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket bound for the asteroid 16 Psyche, believed to be an iron-nickel-rich remnant of a protoplanetary core.

The objective is the initial time a spacecraft will be visiting a body possibly the revealed interior of a differentiated planetary body. This gives a unique window into planetary buildup processes and composition of the core. The journey will be years away, but the launch itself is noteworthy.

By targeting a "metal world," Psyche challenges us to go beyond the conventional rock and ice targets to something significantly different. The mission involves new technologies, including solar-electric propulsion and a demonstration of laser communications. These lay the groundwork for future deep-space missions. For planetary scientists, Psyche offers the chance to test hypotheses regarding the formation of planets and how cores form, directly rather than by proxy.

The launch also solidifies the direction of missions exploring to more varied destinations in our solar system, expanding our understanding not just of Earth-like planets but of the constituents and debris of that process of formation. Psyche is headed for the primary asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a region rich in information on solar system history in early times.

Science and Engineering Implications of Psyche

Among the most compelling science goals is determining whether 16 Psyche is actually metal and, if it is, what kind of metal (iron, nickel, something else). That is telling us something about differentiation and composition in the core, which informs models of Earth's evolution and other rocky worlds.

On the engineering side, Psyche is using low-thrust solar-electric propulsion for interplanetary cruise, which is more efficient but has slower acceleration. It also carries a demonstration of deep-space optical communications to the future data links of spacecraft. These technologies will make future missions to challenging targets at lower cost or improved performance.

From the discovery point of view, the mission bridges planetary science with possible resources and future deep-space infrastructure. Information regarding metal-rich bodies can potentially inform asteroid mining, in-space resource utilization, and larger-scale human exploration.