TIMESINDONESIA, JAKARTA – The spacecraft, Psyche, Thursday (12/10/2023) will begin its journey of 3.6 billion kilometers (km) to an asteroid rich in metal, which is also called the asteroid psyche.
The Psyche spacecraft was launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Scientists hope that the Psyche spacecraft will tell us more about how planets form.
Psyche was NASA’s first science mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Asteroid Psyche is in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
On its journey, in May 2026, the Psyche spacecraft will fly past Mars and use the Red Planet’s gravity to catapult itself towards Psyche, conserving propellant while gaining speed and changing direction.
Once the spacecraft reaches the asteroid in 2029, it will spend about 26 months in orbit, collecting images and other data.
Scientists believe Psyche may be part of the core of a planetesimal, the building block of early planets, and consists of a mixture of rock and iron-nickel metal.
The metal will not be mined, it will be studied to give researchers a better picture of what makes up Earth’s core and how rocky planets form in our solar system.
Humans have been unable to find their way to our planet’s core, or the core of any other rocky planet, so visiting Psyche could provide a unique window into the history of the collisions and violent accumulation of matter that created planets like ours.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Reporter
: Widodo Irianto
Editor: Ferry Agusta Satrio
2023-10-12 07:18:00
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