NASA's Psyche satellite design done, hardware manufacturing in full-swing

National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA) recently completed the design of its satellite Psyche and said that the project has moved from planning and designing to manufacturing hardware for the spacecraft. Psyche, the NASA mission to explore a metal-rock asteroid of the same name, passed the critical design review with 'flying colours', said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who as principal investigator for Psyche is leading the overall mission. 

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According to NASA, the mission was started with drawing up digital blueprints, then was moved to the second stage of building engineering models, which were tested and retested to confirm that the systems would do their job in deep space. Following both the stages, NASA conducted the critical design review that Psyche completed and moved to the manufacturing stage, bringing it closer to its August 2022 launch date that will send the spacecraft to the metal-rock asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

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NASA says that exploring the asteroid Psyche, which is about 140 miles, or 226 kilometers, wide could give valuable insight into how our own planet and others formed since Earth's core can't be examined up-close. "The Psyche spacecraft will use a magnetometer to measure the asteroid's magnetic field. A multispectral imager will capture images of the surface, as well as data about the composition and topography. Spectrometers will analyze the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the surface to reveal the elements that make up the asteroid itself," NASA said in a release. 

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Assembly, testing & launch

The main body of the spacecraft, called the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, is already being built at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California. Assembly, testing and launch operations of the full spacecraft is scheduled to begin in February 2021. Psyche is set to launch in August 2022 and will fly by Mars for a gravity assist in May 2023 before its expected arrival at the asteroid in early 2026.

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(Image Credit: NASA)