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Asteroid 16 Psyche is the heaviest known M-type asteroid, and may be an exposed iron core of a protoplanet, the remnant of a violent collision with another object that stripped off its mantle and crust. On January 4, 2017, the Psyche mission was selected for NASA's Discovery #14 mission. [9] It was launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. [10]
Similar propulsion technologies were used for NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which launched in 2007 on a mission to study two large objects in the main asteroid belt. The Psyche mission, however, will ...
Upon reaching Psyche, the probe is set to circle it in a series of gradually descending orbits, ending up a mere 40 miles (64 km) from the asteroid's surface, before finishing the mission in ...
NASA launched a new six-year mission on Friday morning to explore the Psyche asteroid, which orbits the sun in the solar system’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The Psyche mission ...
Distant, ancient chunk of metal is thought to be a protoplanet
On 30 September 2015, the Psyche orbiter mission was one of five Discovery Program semifinalist proposals. [44] The mission was approved by NASA on 4 January 2017 and was originally targeted to launch in October 2023, with an Earth gravity assist maneuver in 2024, a Mars flyby in 2025, and arriving at the asteroid in 2030. [45]
There have been thirty-three overall missions towards minor planets, with four of them being flyby missions that were not intended to explore minor planets, marked in grey background. [1] [2] Many minor planets are in two domains: Asteroid belt, between 2–3 AU (0.30–0.45 billion km) Kuiper belt, between 30–60 AU (4.5–9.0 billion km)
Meanwhile, the Psyche spacecraft continues to prepare for its primary mission, powering on propulsion systems and testing the scientific instruments it will need to study the asteroid when it ...