{"id":362982,"date":"2026-05-16T14:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=362982"},"modified":"2026-05-16T14:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:37:56","slug":"psyche-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/psyche-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Psyche Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\"><strong>News:\u00a0<\/strong>Psyche Mission spacecraft is set to make a close flyby of Mars to gain a gravity-assisted speed boost that will help guide it toward the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>About Psyche Probe<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_362989\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-362989\" style=\"width: 355px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-362989 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Source-DD-News-1.jpg?resize=355%2C240&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Psyche Probe\" width=\"355\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Source-DD-News-1.jpg?resize=300%2C203&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Source-DD-News-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C693&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Source-DD-News-1.jpg?resize=768%2C520&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Source-DD-News-1.jpg?w=1215&amp;ssl=1 1215w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-362989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; DD News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Psyche probe is a spacecraft<strong> launched in October 2023<\/strong><\/span><strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><b>Launched by: <\/b>It was launched by <b>NASA.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Destination: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is expected to reach its <\/span><b>destination on the outer fringes of the main asteroid belt <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">between Mars and Jupiter.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is expected to reach its <\/span><b>destination in August of 2029.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Objective:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The objective is t<\/span><b>o gain a greater understanding of the formation of Earth and other rocky planets<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that are built around cores of molten metal.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has been designed<\/span><b> to study the metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Psyche spacecraft is the first to <strong>carry a <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/nasa-psyche-spacecraft-fired-a-laser-at-earth\/\">\u00a0Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)<\/a> transceiver<\/strong> and <strong>will be testing high-bandwidth optical communications<\/strong> to Earth during the first two years of the spacecraft\u2019s journey to the main asteroid belt.<\/li>\n<li><b>How it works: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It travels to the asteroid<\/span><b> using solar-electric (low-thrust) propulsion, following a Mars flyby and a gravity assist.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Solar-electric (low-thrust) propulsion: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It uses<\/span><b> Hall effect thrusters,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a type of ion engine that generates thrust by ionizing xenon gas and accelerating the charged particles using electricity produced by solar panels.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Mars flyby: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> Mars flyby<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was built into the <\/span><b>Psyche flight plan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a<\/span><b> way of conserving its supply of xenon gas propellant in the vehicle\u2019s solar-electric ion thruster system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Gravity assist:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As the Psyche Mission spacecraft approaches Mars, <strong>the planet\u2019s gravity pulls the probe toward it and increases its speed.<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is to note that <strong>Mars is also moving around the Sun<\/strong> at nearly 24 km per second.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the<strong> spacecraft enters and exits the planet\u2019s gravitational field,<\/strong> it gains some of Mars\u2019 orbital momentum, allowing it to leave with a much higher speed relative to the Sun without using any extra fuel.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During this gravity-assist manoeuvre<strong>, the spacecraft will pass about 4,500 km above the Martian surface<\/strong> while travelling at nearly 19,848 km per hour.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once in orbit,<\/span><b> it will map and study Psyche using a multispectral imager (<\/b><b>to capture images of objects in different wavelengths of light)<\/b><b>, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer, and a radio instrument <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(for gravity measurement).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> about the size of a small van,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>orbits the asteroid for 26 months, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">scanning the celestial rock with instruments<\/span><b> to measure its gravity, magnetic properties and composition.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The spacecraft <\/span><b>will then spiral ever closer to the asteroid <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">before ending <\/span><b>its mission in 2031.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>About 16 Psyche<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a<strong> giant metal-rich asteroid, <\/strong><\/span><b>discovered in 1852.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Size:<\/strong> It measures<\/span><b> about 173 miles (279 km) across at its widest point.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Origin:<\/strong> The leading hypothesis for the asteroid\u2019s origin is that <strong>Psyche is the once-molten, long-frozen inner hulk of a baby planet<\/strong> torn apart by collisions with other celestial bodies at the dawn of the solar system.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists also believe it may contain <\/span><b>significant amounts of metal from the core of a planetesima<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">l, one of the building blocks of our solar system. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the<\/span><b> largest of about nine known asteroids<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that appear from ground-based radar observations<\/span><b> to consist largely of metal, with rocky material mixed in.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Composition:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is<\/span><b> believed to consist largely of iron, nickel, gold and other metals,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a collective hypothetical monetary value placed at 10 quadrillion dollars.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News:\u00a0Psyche Mission spacecraft is set to make a close flyby of Mars to gain a gravity-assisted speed boost that will help guide it toward the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche.\u00a0 About Psyche Probe The Psyche probe is a spacecraft launched in October 2023. Launched by: It was launched by NASA.\u00a0 Destination: It is expected to reach&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/psyche-probe\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Psyche Probe<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,12039],"tags":[11872,11853],"class_list":["post-362982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-dd-news","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}