The Rise and Postponement of the Psyche Mission

Psyche, the 'Goldmine Asteroid,' Mapped in Greatest Detail Yet

upstart writes:

16 Psyche is considered a dwarf planet, roughly 140 miles in diameter:

Scientists have devised one of the most detailed maps yet of the asteroid, "Psyche," ahead of a mission to investigate the chunk of rock later this year.

The map, released in the paper "The Heterogeneous Surface of Asteroid (16) Psyche" in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, was constructed with an array of advanced telescopes in northern Chile that constructed the asteroid's surface.

"Psyche's surface is very heterogeneous," said the study's lead author, Saverio Cambioni, of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). "It's an evolved surface, and these maps confirm that metal-rich asteroids are interesting enigmatic worlds. It's another reason to look forward to the Psyche mission going to the asteroid."

NASA's Psyche Mission to an Unexplored Metal World Comes to a Halt

NASA's Psyche mission to an unexplored metal world comes to a halt:

NASA's first spacecraft designed to study a metallic asteroid won't be launching this year as planned, according to an announcement made by the agency on Friday.

The Psyche mission's 2022 launch window, which opened on August 1 and closes on October 11, will come to an end before the spacecraft's flight software is ready. A delay in delivering the software and its testing equipment has prevented the Psyche team from having enough time for testing prior to launch.

Engineers want to be absolutely sure that the software will function as expected once the spacecraft is in flight.

[...] "Flying to a distant metal-rich asteroid, using Mars for a gravity assist on the way there, takes incredible precision. We must get it right. Hundreds of people have put remarkable effort into Psyche during this pandemic, and the work will continue as the complex flight software is thoroughly tested and assessed," said JPL Director Laurie Leshin. "The decision to delay the launch wasn't easy, but it is the right one."

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