Psyche, Discovery Mission 14 - a visit to the metallic asteroid, 16 Psyche Options

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

#psychedforpsyche! Psyche has been selected by NASA as the 14th Discovery program mission, after Lucy. The mission aims to send a spacecraft in orbit around the M-type asteroid 16 Psyche, a metallic world theorized to be the exposed iron core of a former protoplanet the size of Mars. The spacecraft will launch in October 2023, with planned gravity assists of Earth in 2024 and Mars in 2025. It will arrive at 16 Psyche in 2030. The mission is led by the Arizona State University and Principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton.

Be sure to check out the new subreddit, r/psychemission, as well!

[mcaplinger]

https://sese.asu.edu/research/psyche

The Psyche Multispectral Imager is a derivative of the MSSS MSL camera: http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/pdf/1366.pdf

Mission design win #3 for that camera.

[Phil Stooke]

Psyche has a Mars Flyby, and it uses a camera developed for Mars... but still I can't help feeling this thread belongs somewhere else than in the Mars section! (Also the new Lucy thread).

Phil

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

Oh whoops. I guess I'm still getting used to this forum! I just saw "Past and Future" on the subforum list and posted here. I didn't realise it was inside another subforum about Mars! Haha! Could a kind mod please move this thread to the "Cometary and Asteroid Missions" subforum?

[nprev]

Moved to Cometary & Asteroid Missions.

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

Many thanks, kind traveller!

[Jaro_in_Montreal]

Linda Elkins-Tanton asks in "PSYCHE AND SPACECRAFT 20161026":

Artist Peter Rubin and scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton collaborate with Space Systems Loral and JPL to envision what orbiting the metal world Psyche might be like.
Pallasite contraction scarps, sulfur lava flows, frozen ejecta towers...what do you think might be there?

https://youtu.be/zTBfNQXSbJo

I answer,

Good question !
I would expect the impact craters to be relatively shallow, BUT due to the unusual stiffness of Psyche, there should be massive spalling on the opposite side.
Not sure what THAT looks like, on such a large scale.

Having looked at photos of spalling effects on Google image search, the most interesting ones are those with a "detached spall".
It would be really neat if Psyche found a loose one lying on the surface of the asteroid !

[Habukaz]

So maybe we'll finally get a cartoon asteroid..



(source)

Given the novelty of the type of object, I find this to be a pretty interesting mission. Not quite (pre-visit) Ceres-level, but high up there.

[Jaro_in_Montreal]

Or maybe more like a cartoon can ?

.

[Explorer1]

List of targets is out, along with diameter and flyby dates:

http://futureplanets.blogspot.ca/2017/01/l...d-missions.html

Short times between flybys in 2025 and 2027!

[stevesliva]

Those are Lucy flybys, no? I don't see any encounters for Psyche other than Psyche.

[Explorer1]

Those are Lucy flybys, no? I don't see any encounters for Psyche other than Psyche.

The threads are split now, got me a bit confused. I see this as the best summary both missions since I see no other recording of the telecon.

[Paolo]

relevant to the mission:
Detection of Rotational Spectral Variation on the M-type asteroid (16) Psyche

The asteroid (16) Psyche is of scientific interest because it contains ~ 1% of the total mass of the asteroid belt and is thought to be the remnant metallic core of a protoplanet. Radar observations have indicated the significant presence of metal on the surface with a small percentage of silicates. Prior ground-based observations showed rotational variations in the near-infrared (NIR) spectra and radar albedo of this asteroid. However, no comprehensive study that combines multi-wavelength data has been conducted so far. Here we present rotationally resolved NIR spectra (0.7-2.5 microns) of (16) Psyche obtained with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. These data have been combined with shape models of the asteroid for each rotation phase. Spectral band parameters extracted from the NIR spectra show that the pyroxene band center varies from ~ 0.92 to 0.94 microns. Band center values were used to calculate the pyroxene chemistry of the asteroid, whose average value was found to be Fs30En65Wo5. Variations in the band depth were also observed, with values ranging from 1.0 to 1.5%. Using a new laboratory spectral calibration we estimated an average orthopyroxene content of 6+/-1%. The mass-deficit region of Psyche, which exhibits the highest radar albedo, also shows the highest value for spectral slope and the minimum band depth. The spectral characteristics of Psyche suggest that its parent body did not have the typical structure expected for a differentiated body or that the sequence of events that led to its current state was more complex than previously thought.

[TheAnt]

Water detected on Psyche - probably transported via impacts.

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

Thoughts on the official mission insignia? It looks very pretty in my opinion! I can't help but notice that they snuck in the colours of ASU into the insignia as well!

[JRehling]

Nothing of any importance, but I thought it would be nice to take a look at Psyche at least once before the mission… I guess there's time to look at it a lot of times before then. Truth be told, I just pointed my telescope at the right place, took 3 pictures, then found it in the imagery after the fact. I never saw it with my eye, at least not knowing that I was seeing it.

The fact that it (identified with the cross hairs) is about fourth in brightness in a rather small and random portion of the sky gives you some idea for how unassuming Psyche is. It's currently magnitude 10.6 and the brighter star near it is magnitude 8.2. But the interest here is obviously in its unique composition, not size.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[nprev]

Very nice! We'll call this the official "before" shot.

[Holder of the Tw...]

The launch date for this mission has been moved up one year to the summer of 2022. The arrival at Psyche will move up to 2026, a whopping four years earlier than originally scheduled.

NASA/JPL News Release

[Explorer1]

Trajectory calculators coming through again! This move also skips the Earth flyby, leaving only the Mars flyby in 2023.

[jasedm]

Wow!

A very welcome development. It's very rare in business/technology that faster = cheaper and more efficient.

I can't remember a 'planetary' mission being moved forward in this way before.

[Explorer1]

Testing of the ion engines has started; this mission will be the first use of Hall-effect thrusters beyond the Moon. Combined with laser communication, quite an upgrade over Dawn! https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6958

[Explorer1]

A possible piggyback flyby-mission to Pallas might be approved soon (!)
https://www.space.com/nasa-considering-athe...oid-pallas.html

The flyby would happened one year after launch, after the Mars gravity assist of the main spacecraft.

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

A possible piggyback flyby-mission to Pallas might be approved soon (!)

Did anything come of this? I'm having a hard time trying to find any SmallSat announcement by NASA in the past few months, despite the article stating a decision was due mid-April!

[mcaplinger]

I'm having a hard time trying to find any SmallSat announcement by NASA in the past few months...

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/small-satellit...ars-and-beyond/

I'm not sure if the Psyche launch is available for these and it doesn't really say.

[Explorer1]

Launcher selected (Falcon Heavy!): https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awa...-psyche-mission

There is also this:

two secondary payloads: Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE), which will study the Martian atmosphere, and Janus, which will study binary asteroids.

[Holder of the Tw...]

Hmmm... no mention of the proposed Athena probe to Pallas being launched with them.

[mcaplinger]

Hmmm... no mention of the proposed Athena probe to Pallas being launched with them.

That mission wasn't selected, see the link above.

More info about Janus at https://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/meetings/jun2...ns/Hartzell.pdf

[Explorer1]

A few more details here, including this bit about Psyche's composition:

“What we did is we took all of the existing data about the asteroid Psyche — the whole science team worked on this for about 10 months — and tried to look at the data from every point of view,” Elkins-Tanton said.

Scientists compared the data on Psyche with meteorites that have fallen to Earth, along with planetary formation models and other asteroids.

“And what we’re finding is that it looks like, the current data seems to indicate, that Psyche is potentially less metallic than we thought it was originally,” Elkins-Tanton said. “It might just be 30 to 60 percent metal, instead of 90 percent metal. Maybe to any sensible person that would seem to be relatively unimportant, but in terms of how we think it might have been made, it makes it much more confusing.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/04/nasa-...metal-asteroid/

[nprev]

Hmm. Well, it's certainly possible that the parent object was shattered before it had finished full melt & differentiation.

Been expecting it to be mostly covered with rocky regolith anyhow, though, just from impact accretion over the eons.

[Explorer1]

The same reason I expect the dramatic spiked craters and "rusty" portions in the artist concepts of these press releases are quite exaggerated. Doubtless eons of micrometeorid bombardment will have worn any feature like that down (like the lunar landscape, which is far less sharp then the Chesley Bonestell paintings).
It will still look really cool, of course!

[HSchirmer]

The same reason I expect the dramatic spiked craters and "rusty" portions in the artist concepts of these press releases are quite exaggerated. Doubtless eons of micrometeorid bombardment will have worn any feature like that down (like the lunar landscape, which is far less sharp then the Chesley Bonestell paintings).
It will still look really cool, of course!

Don't forget, recent papers found metal whiskers on Itokowa samples, so we might have "bottle brush" features on a mostly metal asteroid...

[Marcin600]

I think the beauty of science is to verify our imaginations. Reality sometimes turns out to be more prosaic, and sometimes it exceeds our imagination.

We need missions like this very much - just because we can build a real picture of the Universe (Our World) and... imagine even more.
No one really knows what we'll see on Psyche!

[bobik]

Can someone give some insights into Psyche's magnetometer crisis that apparently happened late 2019? It seems around that time (quite late in the project, I think) UCLA was going to become unavailable to build the magnetometer for Psyche, which is now developed and built by the Technical University of Denmark. Probably, this move (never widely publicized, I believe) is somehow related to UCLA's late involvement in Europa Clipper, isn't it?

[Explorer1]

A new release of many (42!) images of the largest asteroids from SPHERE (Psyche included). Some interesting results regarding shape, rotation, and density.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2114/

[JRehling]

I've only skimmed this so far, but it's a goldmine of interesting results! What a revolutionary study.

[Marcin600]

A new release of many (42!) images of the largest asteroids from SPHERE (Psyche included). Some interesting results regarding shape, rotation, and density.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2114/

And here is a pdf with these results and pictures

And online

[bobik]

Can someone give some insights ... ?

Then it happened again. This time, IMAP's UCLA magnetometer was replaced by an European (Imperial College London) instrument. Is there any background information available?

[B Bernatchez]

Launch has been delayed:

https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/05/23/launc...late-september/

[bobik]

Hmm, not much information yet, but according to this timeline new flight software, FSW 5.0 was scheduled to be installed in the second half of May 2022.

[mcaplinger]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ann...steroid-mission

NASA announced Friday the Psyche asteroid mission, the agency’s first mission designed to study a metal-rich asteroid, will not make its planned 2022 launch attempt.

Due to the late delivery of the spacecraft’s flight software and testing equipment, NASA does not have sufficient time to complete the testing needed ahead of its remaining launch period this year, which ends on Oct. 11. The mission team needs more time to ensure that the software will function properly in flight...

“NASA takes the cost and schedule commitments of its projects and programs very seriously,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “We are exploring options for the mission in the context of the Discovery Program, and a decision on the path forward will be made in the coming months.”

[tolis]

Psyche will still get to Psyche, just a bit later.

[vjkane]

Psyche will still get to Psyche, just a bit later.

That is true, but the delay means that a large mission team needs to be funded for a year or two longer. That funding will come from somewhere within the planetary budget. As the quote above (“We are exploring options for the mission in the context of the Discovery Program, and a decision on the path forward will be made in the coming months.”), NASA is still evaluating those impacts. That quote also seems to leave open the option for not flying the Psyche mission.

[vjkane]

That is true, but the delay means that a large mission team needs to be funded for a year or two longer. That funding will come from somewhere within the planetary budget. As the quote above (“We are exploring options for the mission in the context of the Discovery Program, and a decision on the path forward will be made in the coming months.”), NASA is still evaluating those impacts. That quote also seems to leave open the option for not flying the Psyche mission.

From the press release: "The mission’s 2022 launch period, which ran from Aug. 1 through Oct. 11, would have allowed the spacecraft to arrive at the asteroid Psyche in 2026. There are possible launch periods in both 2023 and 2024, but the relative orbital positions of Psyche and Earth mean the spacecraft would not arrive at the asteroid until 2029 and 2030, respectively. The exact dates of these potential launch periods are yet to be determined."

[Explorer1]

October 10, 2023 launch, for August 2029 arrival. So overall a 3 year delay. (not as bad as Galileo after Challenger, but something like Rosetta).

Review board is finishing its report on the cause of the delay too.

NASA continues to assess options for its Janus mission exploring twin binary asteroid systems, which was originally scheduled to launch on the same SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as Psyche. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, is integrated into the Psyche spacecraft and will continue as planned on the new launch date.

[Marcin600]

October 10, 2023 launch, for August 2029 arrival. So overall a 3 year delay. (not as bad as Galileo after Challenger, but something like Rosetta).

Review board is finishing its report on the cause of the delay too.

Such information always makes me realize how short human life is, and being interested in space exploration requires a lot of PATIENCE.
And still in the last century, it seemed that now everything was going to happen very quickly... However, spacetime is spacetime - the laws of physics cannot be jumped (like in the movies)

[Explorer1]

Town hall regarding the Psyche Review Board:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDTE42Id7ok
TL; DR; many different causes, management, high workload, hybrid/remote work, some key people not hired, delays in altering management to problems.

[mcaplinger]

Janus in limbo: https://blogs.nasa.gov/janus/2022/11/18/jan...aunch-manifest/

[Marcin600]

"The road to October 2023: NASA’s Psyche has an updated mission plan" - https://blogs.nasa.gov/psyche/2023/03/29/th...d-mission-plan/

"...The launch period will open Oct. 5 and close Oct. 25 (...) Due to the new launch date, Psyche has a new mission plan, which includes a flyby of Mars for a gravity assist and arrival at the asteroid in August 2029..."

[mcaplinger]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-...nt-review-board

NASA will host a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 5, to discuss the follow-up report by the Psyche mission independent review board. The new assessment reviews corrective actions taken following the November 2022 report.

Audio of the media call will stream live at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

[Floyd]

Here is link to report
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/at...y_2023_508a.pdf

[Explorer1]

Janus has been cancelled for now

After considering the opportunities and requirements for alternative missions using the twin spacecraft, and the expected resources available to planetary science in the next few years, NASA has decided to stand down further work on the Janus mission. The project will complete the contracted work remaining on the two spacecraft and then prepare them for storage in the event that future funding may enable an opportunity to utilize the spacecraft.

Both spacecraft will be put into storage for a future opportunity...

[mcaplinger]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/every...metal-asteroid/ has some recent pictures of the spacecraft.

The science cameras are underneath remove-before-flight covers as indicated here:

[kenny]

Launch postponed 1 week to October 12.
That loses one third of the launch window.

NASA Blog Psyche

[kenny]

Static fire of the Falcon Heavy which will launch Psyche occurred on Saturday Sept 30.
This is one of the final steps in preparing the vehicle for launch.

Falcon Heavy static fire

[kenny]

Psyche is on the pad for launch due 10.16am EDT tomorrow Thurs Oct 12.
Weather is questionable at this point.

Florid Today - Psyche launch

I have a launch invitation.. if any other UMSF-ers have the same, and want to say hello, pls message me.

[Holder of the Tw...]

Well, I was there on October 5th. Took a picture of the empty pad 39A from the LC 39 observation tower (the Falcon Heavy was moved back after the static fire) around the time that the launch was originally scheduled to lift off. Better luck to you tomorrow, although based on weather forecasts I'm expecting delays to the weekend.

[kenny]

Sorry to miss you, Holder...

Launch postponed a further day to Friday 13th due to bad weather. Tornado warnings for 8pm tonight at the Cape.

[nprev]

Booster fueling just began, live coverage here and here.

GO PSYCHE!!!

[Antdoghalo]

We got successful liftoff!!! Psyche is on the way to... Psyche!

[nprev]

Departure burn nominal, spacecraft separated.

[Holder of the Tw...]

It's Alive! Carrier signal aquired.

[Floyd]

Full signals and solar arrays deployed link

[kenny]

Psyche is healthy and has fired up the new laser comms system (DSOC) for the first time.

JPL Psyche update Nov. 16