National Space Day and the Psyche Mission
By Rachel Ware
May 5 is National Space Day, which occurs annually on the first Friday in May. This is a day to learn and share about space exploration and one way to celebrate is to learn about the work on space exploration happening here at ASU.
The Interplanetary Initiative and the Psyche mission are great places to start. ASU is home to the Psyche mission led by PI Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a NASA mission set to launch later this year in October. The mission was originally meant to launch last year, but problems with the spacecraft delayed it. The spacecraft cannot launch at any time. It has to be in an appropriate window to do a flyby of Mars to reach Psyche, an asteroid hypothesized to be a clue to the formation of planets. You may have heard it called a “mission to a metal world” as the asteroid is likely rich in metal, as opposed to rock or ice.
The next available launch window is between October 5 and 25, 2023. As the launch date changed, the mission will be slightly different with a changed orbit pattern around the asteroid Psyche and different use of thrusters than previously planned. You can read more about the changes and past blog posts about the mission here.
This Space Day, you may also be interested in reading more about the mission, those involved, and the spacecraft on the mission website. Those artistically minded may wish to peruse the Psyche Inspired gallery or build their own model Psyche, spacecraft, and more. Or you may want to think about the hopeful inspiration of space in this writing by the mission PI, Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, here.
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