NASA’s Psyche asteroid probe will launch in October after a 1-year delay. Psyche was scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in October 2022 to explore the intriguing metal asteroid for which the mission is named. Last summer, however, NASA delayed the launch indefinitely due to problems with the spacecraft’s flight software. Now, things have worked out, the problem has been fixed and the countdown has begun.Problems solved
The Psyche mission will also represent a first for NASA and the planet. This probe is the first NASA spacecraft designed to study a metallic asteroid. After a 1-year delay, during testing at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), engineers discovered a compatibility issue in the software’s testbed simulators and it has now been resolved. The whole process was also observed by an independent review board and it was emphasized that the steps taken were “extraordinary”. “We believe Psyche is on a positive course for launch in October 2023, and overall we think the mission is likely to be successful.” it was said.Journey to the metal-rich asteroid
The spacecraft will travel 450 million kilometers when it launches this year. The vehicle will reach the asteroid, also called Psyche, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in August 2029. The space probe will orbit the 220-kilometer-wide asteroid Psyche for 26 months and collect data.The Psyche asteroid is so metal-rich that some scientists believe it is the exposed core of a planetarym, or a layered planet. Scientists think that over time, Psyche experienced collisions with other celestial bodies and lost its layers as a result. What remains is thought to be the dense metal core, like the liquid metal core at the center of the Earth. The potato-shaped asteroid appears only as a vague blur in ground- and space-based telescopes. According to NASA, this unusual object could also be a piece of primordial matter that never melted.
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