The US space agency recently welcomed journalists to examine its psyche spacecraft at JPL. Psyche will be on an asteroid orbit. On Monday, April 11, members of the media were shown a close-up view of the soon-to-be orbiting spacecraft at NASA’s propulsion lab. NASA’s psyche spacecraft will embark on a journey to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name.
The mission’s leaders, most notably Psyche’s principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University and his project manager, Henery Stone of JPL, were also interviewed by the media.
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Welcoming reporters to the cleanroom gives the public a picture of the years of hard effort that went into the mission, says Brian Bone. “Thank you to the Psyche staff for their hard work and dedication. We are nearing the end of the process of getting the spacecraft ready for launch from Florida.”
To keep the spaceship hygienic and prevent it from putting germs from Earth into orbit. Isopropyl alcohol was used to clean the journalists’ equipment. Since March 21, the NASA asteroid mission has been in the assembly test and launch phase.
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To reach the asteroid, the spacecraft will connect to Mars in 2023 for a gravity assist, then orbit asteroid “Psyche” in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in early 2026. The launch window of the Psyche spacecraft will open on August 1.
Psyche will accelerate to its destination using the gravity of Mars. It will measure, map and gradually tighten its own orbits over the next 21 months until it passes just above the surface of the Psyche asteroid.
cover photo:Twitter/NASA