NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Looks Astonishing Assembled For The First Time

One problem with solar powered space travel is that the further you get from the sun, the less energy you have available to you. So these arrays can generate 21 kilowatts of energy near Earth, which could power several homes, but by the time they reach their destination they’ll only produce around 2 kilowatts. So engineers had to design the arrays accordingly. “These arrays are designed to work in low-light conditions, far away from the sun,” said Peter Lord, Psyche technical director at Maxar Technologies, where the arrays were built.

Getting to the asteroid isn’t the only challenging part of the mission though. Once Psyche arrives at its destination in 2026, it will have to get close enough to the asteroid to study it. The craft will spend nearly two years circling the asteroid, making very small adjustments to come closer and closer over time. It will study the asteroid using instruments including a magnetometer to measure magnetic fields and images for snapping photos of the asteroid, as well as tools called spectrometers which can determine the composition of an object by looking at the spectrum of light it gives off (via NASA).

All of this can help researchers learn more about what Psyche is made of, which is thought to be some combination of nickel, iron, and different kinds of rock. Though researchers aren’t sure whether the rock and metals are separate, or whether they are all mixed together. They also want to find out if the asteroid could be the core of a planet which never fully formed, which could help us understand more about the very early formation of our solar system.

The Psyche mission is set to launch later this year, in 2022.