The Psyche Mission Prepares for Launch

Technicians have begun retracting one of the two solar arrays attached to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft in preparation for its launch on October 5. The jumbo solar arrays were tested and permanently installed on the orbiter inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once launched, the spacecraft will study a metal-rich asteroid named Psyche, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The Psyche mission aims to provide insights into planetary cores and Earth’s own formation by studying the asteroid, which may be part of a core of a planet. The five-panel, cross-shaped solar arrays deployed during testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are the largest ever deployed at JPL. With the arrays unfurled in flight, the spacecraft will be about the size of a singles tennis court.

Although the solar arrays will produce more than 20 kilowatts of power when the spacecraft is near Earth, they are primarily designed to work in the low light of deep space. The asteroid Psyche is so far from the Sun that even these massive arrays will generate just over 2 kilowatts of power at that distance. However, this is ample energy to meet Psyche’s electrical needs, including running science instruments, telecommunications, orbiter temperature control, and superefficient solar electric propulsion engines.

The spacecraft will use electromagnetic fields to accelerate and push out charged atoms, or ions, of the neutral gas xenon which will create the thrust needed to push Psyche through space. The spacecraft will accelerate to speeds of up to 124,000 mph relative to Earth during its interplanetary journey to the asteroid belt.

The launch of Psyche is targeted to take place from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.