NASA chairman JPL is doing a remarkably well in improving the agency’s space explorations. In another case, one of two solar panels on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft was successfully deployed. The space agency via a release aware of the same. The mission on its journey to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, far from the sun, presents challenges that have adapted the standard orbiting commercial satellite technology for use in the cold and dark of deep space. . Read below to know all about it.
Our Psyche mission prepares to travel 1.5 billion miles to an asteroid of the same name. With an area of 75 square meters, the solar panels are the largest ever installed on @NASAJPL, bringing it one step closer to launch in August. Details: pic.twitter.com/e7RejzzLf6
— NASA (@NASA) March 8, 2022
While sharing a tweet about the official handle, NASA let it be known that two solar panels are attached to the Psyche mission spacecraft. The agency stated that the arrays were unfolded lengthwise and then put back. Spanning 75 square meters, the five-panel cruciform solar arrays are the most elaborate ever nested by JPL, which has assembled a number of spacecraft for NASA and its partners over the past decade.
NASA Psyche Mission
The Psyche is a planned orbiter mission that will investigate the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche. On January 4, 2017, Psyche’s mission was announced. 16 Psyche is the heaviest known M-type asteroid and is believed to be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet, the remnant of a violent collision with another object that has removed its mantle and crust. Radar observations of the asteroid from Earth indicate an iron-nickel composition. The mission will be launched by NASA in August.
Credit Source – Representative