Mars Propels NASA’s Psyche Toward Metal Asteroid
On May 15, NASA sent their Psyche spacecraft to observe the metal-rich asteroid, because it provides humanity with its first-ever opportunity to directly study the exposed, metal-rich core of an early planetary building block.
is believed to be the partial core of a young planet that was still forming. With the inside core unveiled, scientists think its exposure is because of brutal crashes with large space rocks. If this asteroid is an ancient planet’s exposed metallic core, it offers a rare glimpse into the hidden interiors of rocky planets like Earth.
So how did the spacecraft advance towards its destination?
The spacecraft made its approach of Mars within 2864 miles of the planet’s surface. Using Mars as a cosmic slingshot, the spacecraft captured a massive speed boost and adjusted its orbital path entirely fuel-free to save propellant, charting a direct course for the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. After receiving a 1,000-mile-per-hour boost from Mars, the spacecraft will finally arrive at the asteroid Psyche in August of 2029.
Not only did the spacecraft use Mars to propel towards NASA’s goal, it took thousands of images of the approach, the planet’s surface, and the atmosphere. Due to a high phase approach angle, the Psyche spacecraft observed Mars as a narrow crescent. Radiance describes the intensity of light emitted or scattered by a surface or atmosphere.
In the Martian atmosphere, Mie scattering—the process where sunlight hits dust particles of a size similar to or larger than the light’s wavelength—directly redirects sunlightThis type of forward-directed light deflection is primarily responsible for the blue-ish halos seen during Martian sunsets.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft recently experienced a sweeping Mars flyby, using the Red Planet as a cosmic slingshot to save propellant and gain a 1,000 mph speed boost .
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