The first-ever mission to study a metal-rich asteroid, Psyche aims to help scientists learn more about the formation of rocky bodies in our solar system.
With a launch readiness date set for Thursday, Oct. 12, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel 2.2 billion miles from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to a metal-rich asteroid in the far reaches of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Trailing a blue glow from its thrusters and powered by a pair of massive solar arrays, the orbiter will use its payload of science instruments to learn more about the asteroid Psyche.1.
If the asteroid proves to be leftover core material from a planetary building block, scientists will learn how its history resembles and diverges from that of the rocky planets. And if scientists discover that Psyche is not an exposed core, it may prove to be a never-before-seen kind of primordial solar system object.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is also responsible for system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations.
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