Right now, a spacecraft named Psyche is headed to its namesake asteroid, 16 Psyche. The theory is that 16 Psyche, which lies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, may be made of precious metals that, on Earth, would be worth more than the entire world economy. However, we’ll only know for sure once this probe gets there in 2029. So, we’ll have to wait.
But in the mean time, this spacecraft has been keeping us entertained. On its way to that tremendously exciting asteroid, Psyche just made a memorable pit stop: It flew by Mars, getting within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. That’s very, very close — indeed, close enough to bring us some marvelous imagery of our neighbor, the Red Planet.
NASA also explains that one of Psyche’s instruments, the multispectral imager, saw the crescent appearing brighter and extending farther than expected due to the dusty Mars atmosphere scattering light. The multispectral imager is special because it can take images in both visible light (light we can see as humans) and near-infrared light (the kind of invisible light the James Webb Space Telescope famously specializes in).
That kind of imaging will be important once Psyche gets to 16 Psyche, because it’ll reveal better detail about the asteroid’s surface features. In fact, it would appear that a lot of asteroid-specific gear meant to help NASA decode the true composition of 16 Psyche and let us know whether or not it lives up to its proposed price tag of many (many) quadrillions of dollars was turned on during the Mars flyby. This includes instruments like the magnetometers that may have found a “bow shock” on Mars, which relates to solar wind dynamics near the planet.
But to keep our eyes on Mars for a minute: As breathtaking as that crescent is, it isn’t the only image Psyche’s operators managed to process during the probe’s close approach to the planet.
“We’ve captured thousands of images of the approach to Mars and of the planet’s surface and atmosphere at close approach. This dataset provides unique and important opportunities for us to calibrate and characterize the performance of the cameras, as well as test the early versions of our image-processing tools being developed for use at the asteroid Psyche,” Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University, said in a statement.
For instance, NASA also released the flyby images below. And agency officials say we can expect further analysis of Psyche’s Martian views in the coming days as more opportunities arise.
“As the spacecraft continues its journey after the flyby, we’ll continue calibration imaging of Mars for the rest of the month as it recedes into the distance,” Bell said.
This image just above showcases Psyche’s view of a nearly “full Mars.” The white blob toward the left is actually the planet’s south pole, depicting a high-resolution view of the water-ice-rich area in this region on Mars. That cap is over 430 miles (700 kilometers) in width, NASA says.
The first image below shows wind streaks over craters on the Red Planet, with the streaks extending to about 30 miles (50 km) in length. The craters average around 30 miles (50 km) in diameter as well.
Meanwhile, the second image below is blue because it’s an enhanced color view of Mars, showing Huygens crater, which is about 290 miles (470 km) in width.
As to why Psyche made this little detour on its way to its final target? It’s because of something called a “gravity assist,” which is a popular maneuver taken by spacecraft headed into the depths of our solar system.
Basically, a gravity assist allows a probe to harness the gravitational influence of different objects in space (usually planets) and slingshot onto a planned trajectory that brings it toward an ultimate target. According to NASA, it would appear this gravity assist of Psyche was as effective as hoped for.
“We’ve confirmed that Mars gave the spacecraft a 1,000 mile‑per‑hour boost and shifted its orbital plane by about 1 degree relative to the sun. We are now on course for arrival at the asteroid Psyche in summer 2029,” Don Han, Psyche’s navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the statement.
Han also explained that the Psyche flight team came to this conclusion by taking advantage of the Doppler Shift effect. The Doppler Shift has to do with the way wavelengths from an object moving away from you stretch out while those from an object moving toward you compress.
NASA’s Deep Space Network, which the agency uses to communicate with far-flung spacecraft, is able to tap into this effect and thus figure out the locations of spacecraft. It’s also worth noting that Psyche is testing out a cool new form of spacecraft communications that involves laser-beaming information back to Earth with its Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) software. That has, so far, been knocking it out of the park — even transmitting an image of a cat named Taters across 19 million miles (30 million km) of space.
“We’ve been anticipating the Mars flyby for years, but now it’s complete. We can thank the Red Planet for giving our spacecraft a critical gravitational slingshot farther into the solar system,” Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley, said in the statement.
“Onward to the asteroid Psyche!”
