Psyche mission
Psyche is a NASA mission launched in 2023 to orbit the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche.
The Psyche mission is a NASA spacecraft launched in October 2023 on a Falcon Heavy rocket. It is travelling to the asteroid 16 Psyche, using solar-electric propulsion that pushes out xenon ions, and is due to arrive in 2029.
The asteroid Psyche is one of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt and appears to be unusually rich in metal. One idea is that it is the exposed iron core of a planetesimal whose rocky outer layers were stripped away by collisions. If so, it would offer a unique chance to see the kind of object iron meteorites come from, rather than looking only at fragments.
The spacecraft will map the surface, measure its magnetic field, gravity and composition, and test whether Psyche really is a core, or perhaps a mix of metal and rock. It also carried a laser communications experiment that set records for deep-space data transmission.
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