This artist’s illustration imagines a violent collision at the beginning of Psyche’s story. Credit: ASU / Peter Rubin
NASA announced on Friday, June 24, 2022 that the Psyche asteroid mission, the agency’s first mission designed to study a metal-rich asteroid, will not make its planned launch launch in 2022.
Due to the late delivery of the flight software and spacecraft test equipment, NASA does not have enough time to complete the necessary tests before this year’s remaining launch period, which ends on the 11th. of October. The mission team needs extra time to make sure the software is working properly in flight.
NASA selected Psyche in 2017 as part of the agency’s Discovery program, a line of competitive, low-cost missions led by a single principal investigator. The agency is forming an independent evaluation team to review the way forward for the project and the Discovery program.
“NASA takes the costs and programming commitments of its projects and programs very seriously,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Scientific Mission Directorate in Washington. “We are exploring options for the mission in the context of the Discovery program, and a decision will be made in the coming months on the way forward.”
This illustration, updated in April 2022, depicts NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU
The independent evaluation team, typically made up of government, academia and industry experts, will review possible options for the next steps, including estimated costs. Implications for the Discovery program and the agency’s planetary science portfolio will also be considered.
The spacecraft’s navigation and flight software will control the spacecraft’s orientation as it flies through space and is used to point the spacecraft’s antenna at Earth so that the spacecraft can send and receive data. orders. It also provides trajectory information to the spacecraft’s solar-powered electric propulsion system, which begins operations 70 days after launch.
When the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission team in Southern California began testing the system, a compatibility issue with the software test bench simulators was discovered. In May, NASA changed the target launch date of the mission from August 1 to no earlier than September 20 to accommodate the necessary work. The problem with the test benches has been identified and corrected; however, there is not enough time to complete a full software check for this year’s release.
“Flying a distant asteroid rich in metals, using Mars as a gravity aid on the way, requires incredible accuracy. We must be right. Hundreds of people have made a remarkable effort on Psyche during this pandemic, and work will continue on as the flight software complex is thoroughly tested and evaluated, ”said Laurie Leshin, director of JPL. “The decision to delay the launch was not easy, but it is the right one.”
The launch period of the mission in 2022, which lasted from August 1 to October 11, would have allowed the spacecraft to reach the asteroid Psyche in 2026. There are possible launch periods both in 2023 as in 2024, but the relative orbital positions of Psyche and Earth mean the spacecraft would not reach the asteroid until 2029 and 2030, respectively. The exact dates of these potential release periods are yet to be determined.
“Our amazing team has overcome almost every incredible challenge of building a spacecraft during COVID,” said Psyche principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University (ASU). who directs the mission. “We have overcome many hardware and software challenges, and in the end we stopped for this last problem. We just need a little more time and this one will lick us too. The team is ready to move forward and I am very grateful for their excellence. license “.
The total costs of Psyche’s life cycle mission, including the rocket, are $ 985 million. Of this, $ 717 million has been spent so far. Estimated costs are currently being calculated to support each of the available mission options.
The launch of two projects along the same SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as Psyche was scheduled, including NASA’s Janus mission to study twin binary asteroid systems and the demonstration of deep space optical communications technology to test communications. integrated high speed data laser. with the Psyche spacecraft. NASA is evaluating options for both projects.
ASU leads the Psyche mission. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the overall management of the mission; systems engineering; integration and testing; and mission operations. Maxar provides the chassis of the high-powered solar electric propulsion spacecraft. NASA’s launch services program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the launch.