Request NASA Discovery Mission Psyche

[JonnyBGoode]

If anyone needs a mod project... NASA's Discovery Mission Psyche would be fun! Scheduled to launch in 2022 from a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

NASA Finds Rare Metal Asteroid and It's Worth $10,000 Quadrillion

The asteroid, 16 Psyche, lies in our Solar System's main asteroid belt.

interestingengineering.com

 

[Urwumpe]

Sounds like BrianJ territory.

More details can be found here: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20170008008

On the NTRS are also a lot of reports about trajectory design and instruments.

 

[JonnyBGoode]

Sounds like BrianJ territory.

Does @BrianJ hang out in the asteroid belt?

A note of nomenclature: The article calls the moon Psyche 16. It's preferred to call it by its discovery number first: 16 Psyche. (Preaching to the choir: I'm sure you know that.)

There's another big asteroid out there, 9 Metis, that could have a similar composition. About half the size of Psyche. If Musk can get a mining ship to one or both of them, he could finance his whole Mars project indefinitely.

 

[BrianJ]

Does @BrianJ hang out in the asteroid belt?

Some would say "Yes!"

Both Psyche and Lucy missions appeal as Orbiter projects. Ion propulsion(Psyche) is always an interesting navigation challenge for me, and the Lucy mission is just epic! Thanks for the heads up.

Apparently "Lucy" was named after the hominin fossil - not the Beatles song about...erm...being "in the sky".
Ok, sure, whatever

Cheers,
Brian

 

[cannon_gray]

Psyche on the rocket will have EscaPADE and Janus probes. The first will go to study the atmosphere of Mars, the second - binary asteroids. The spacecraft payload includes three scientific instruments. The magnetometer is made to detect and measure the residual magnetic field of an asteroid. The multispectral scanner will capture high-resolution images using filters to isolate the metallic and silicon components of Psyche. Finally, the gamma spectrometer and neutron spectrometer will detect, measure, and map the elemental composition of Psyche. The mission will also test new space-based laser communications technology.

 

[Jeremyxxx]

EscaPADE would be the second binary asteroid mission launched on an American rocket after DART.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video From Deep Space via Laser

The video, featuring a cat named Taters, was sent back from nearly 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications demonstration, marking a historic milestone.

www.jpl.nasa.gov

I would have sent Nyan Cat, but that may be a reason why I don't work for NASA.