A mission to an asteroid will have to wait a while. It was scheduled to head into space next week. But a series of technical problems have kept him on the ground for at least another year.
The spacecraft is named after its asteroid target: Psyche. The asteroid is located in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is potato-shaped, with an average diameter of about 140 miles. It could be a fragment of the core of a small planet that was shattered in a collision a long time ago.
This idea is based on the composition of Psyche: it contains a lot of iron and nickel. In fact, it is the largest of all known metal-rich asteroids. Scientists are particularly interested in it because it could have formed in the same way as Earth, and it could give a glimpse of a planetary core that we can’t reach here at home.
The Psyche spacecraft is about the size of a smart car, with solar panels big enough to cover a tennis court. It will use ion power to maneuver — electric thrusters that offer low thrust but can shoot for weeks or months without stopping.
Psyche will receive a gravitational boost from Mars to help it reach the asteroid. It will spend nearly two years orbiting the heavy space rock, eventually falling to within about 50 miles. It will take pictures and measure Psyche’s magnetic field and its composition, giving us a detailed look at a body that could tell us a lot about our own planet.
Screenplay by Damond Benningfield