Missions · Space Codex
Psyche (mission)
A solar-electric spacecraft heading for 16 Psyche, an asteroid that may be the exposed core of a shattered protoplanet.
NASA's journey to a metal-rich asteroid
At a glance
Key points
- Arrives August 2029
- Mars flyby 15 May 2026
- Solar-electric propulsion
Why it matters
We cannot drill to Earth's core. If Psyche is a stripped core, it offers a look at the metal heart of a world-in-progress.
A gentle, patient engine
Psyche's Hall thrusters use electricity from its large solar arrays to accelerate charged xenon atoms out of the back. The push is about as strong as the weight of a few coins in your hand, but it can run for months at a time and uses far less propellant than a chemical rocket. In November 2023 Psyche became the first spacecraft to use this kind of thruster beyond the Moon's orbit.
The Mars flyby
On 15 May 2026 Psyche passed about 4,609 km above Mars. The planet's gravity gave a boost of roughly 1,600 km/h and tilted the orbit by about a degree, with no propellant spent. The team used the encounter as a dress rehearsal: every instrument was switched on, the cameras imaged a crescent Mars and the Huygens crater, and the magnetometers may have sensed the edge of Mars's bow shock.
Laser messages from deep space
Psyche carried NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, which sent data by near-infrared laser instead of radio. It first linked up in November 2023 from about 16 million km and on 3 December 2024 returned data from about 494 million km, farther than the average Earth–Mars distance. Peak rates reached 267 megabits per second before the demonstration ended in 2025.
The plan at the asteroid
From August 2029 the spacecraft is to spend about two years in progressively lower orbits. Its cameras will map the surface, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer will measure which elements are present, and magnetometers will look for leftover magnetism. A remnant magnetic field would be strong evidence that Psyche once had a molten, churning metal core.
What we still don't know
Whether Psyche is mostly metal or a rubbly mix of metal and rock; its measured albedo of 0.12 already rules out a shiny surface.
Missions
- 2023–
Psyche
NASAEn routeMars gravity assist 15 May 2026; arrives at asteroid Psyche Aug 2029.
Related entries
- 16 PsycheA metal-rich world NASA is flying to
- Main asteroid beltRocky debris between Mars and Jupiter
Sources
- NASA Science: Psyche mission (opens in a new tab)
- NASA: Psyche aces Mars flyby (opens in a new tab)
- NASA JPL: Psyche delivers first images and other data (opens in a new tab)
- NASA: Deep space optical comms demo exceeds expectations (opens in a new tab)
Last reviewed against these sources. Built from public NASA, ESA and JPL data; not affiliated with or endorsed by any agency.