NASA Approves Psyche Mission to Explore Core of an Ancient Planet

NASA has greenlit a mission to explore the metal-heavy asteroid Psyche, which could represent the exposed core of a long-dead planet. The survival of the mission had previously been called into question following technical issues that forced it to miss its 2022 launch window.

In 1852 the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis discovered a roaming heavenly body traversing the night sky, which he named for the Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche. 

Later telescope observations revealed that Psyche was in fact a 140-mile (226 km)-wide asteroid with a high metal content, that orbited in the main asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. 

Psyche’s metal-heavy makeup — which accounts for somewhere between 30 – 60 percent of its total mass — set it apart from the rest of the million-plus asteroids that are known to roam our solar system. Many astronomers now believe that the strange body may be the exposed nickel-iron core of an ancient primordial planet, the outer layers of which were blasted off during a series of ancient collisions with other young planetoids.

If this were to be the case, Psyche would represent a unique opportunity to explore the core of a world born in the chaotic environment that was thought to prevail in the space around our young star billions of years ago. 

Ordinarily, it would be impossible to make direct observations of a planet’s core. Earth’s metal-dominated heart, for example, is locked away some 3,000 km (1,800 miles) below the surface in a phenomenally high-pressure environment, which has a temperature of around 5,000°C (9,000°F). These are not ideal conditions for scientific study.

Therefore, despite the fact that it is orbiting the Sun in the hostile environment of interplanetary space, Psyche’s exposed core seems almost too good to be true. By observing the planetary remnant, astronomers could gain insights into the formation of the mighty planets of the solar system, including Earth and the multitude of distant exoplanets that have been discovered to date.

In 2017, NASA announced its intention to send an uncrewed probe to rendezvous with and explore the alien world. The spacecraft will be powered by two solar panels — which together give the probe an impressive wingspan of 81 ft (25 meters).

Alongside running the suite of scientific instruments mounted aboard the probe, the electricity generated by the panels will also be used to convert xenon gas into xenon ions, which can then be fired out of the rear of the spacecraft to provide thrust.

The Psyche mission is currently progressing through rigorous testing prior to its eventual launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

However, the road to launch has been anything but smooth. Psyche missed its initial 2022 launch date thanks to a series of technical setbacks, including issues with the probe’s flight control software. These problems were so severe that both an internal review and an independent probe were established to examine the technical issues surrounding the mission and to see whether it was still viable.

The findings of the independent review are still being finalized and will be made available to the public at a later date.

However, on Oct. 10, NASA announced that the mission would not be scrapped after all and that instead, the agency was aiming to launch the robotic spacecraft as soon as Oct. 10 next year. The mission has a lifetime budget of $985 million US dollars, of which over $717 million has already been spent. 

If all goes well during the October 2023 launch, the lonely probe will travel through interplanetary space for around three years before using the gravity of Mars to radically alter its trajectory in 2026. Assuming this is a success, mission operators expect the probe to rendezvous with the asteroid Psyche in August 2029.

“I appreciate the hard work of the independent review board and the JPL-led team toward mission success,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The lessons learned from Psyche will be implemented across our entire mission portfolio. I am excited about the science insights Psyche will provide during its lifetime and its promise to contribute to our understanding of our own planet’s core.”

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Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin