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Psyche
NASA’s Psyche mission, an unmanned expedition to an unusual asteroid of the same name, is entering the final stages of preparation.
After years of testing and developing the scientific instruments that will analyze the metallic asteroid, NASA is ready to send individual components to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). There, engineers will begin to integrate and assemble the complete spacecraft, according to a press release from JPL.
“It’s really the final phase, when all the pieces of the puzzle come together and we get on the rocket. This is the most intense part of everything that happens on the ground, ”Psyche principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton said in the statement.
Meet the deadlines
If all continues to go well, the spacecraft will be ready long before its scheduled launch in August 2022. NASA expects final testing and assembly to last until spring 2022, when it will finally be. sent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. .
“The project has made tremendous progress, especially given the world around us and COVID-19 and the stresses that this imposes,” said Henry Stone, head of Project Psyche, in the press release. “We are in very good shape. We are on the right track and have a plan to move forward to complete the launch. “
Snooping
During its 21-month orbit around Psyche, the NASA spacecraft will take images of the asteroid while studying its surface and – if it finds one – its magnetic field.
The asteroid appears to have a much higher metal content than a typical space rock, leading scientists to suspect that it really is the exposed core of a planet that has shattered. Depending on what the mission finds, the NASA spacecraft may also reveal new information about the formation of our planet.
READ MORE: NASA’s Psyche mission moves forward and achieves milestone [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
Learn more about Psyche: NASA hires SpaceX to launch mission to giant metal asteroid
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