A NASA spacecraft bound for an unusual metallic asteroid recently made a strategic flyby of Mars — and its cameras captured a rare perspective of the red planet along the way, reports BritPanorama.
The Psyche mission, launched in October 2023, is heading for Asteroid 16 Psyche in the outer part of the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The space rock has never been seen up close, but ground and space-based telescope observations reveal that it has an intriguing, reflective metal surface. Scientists suspect the large metallic asteroid could be the exposed core of an early planetary building block, akin to the innermost layers of planets such as Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus.
However, the journey to reach the space rock is a long one. The spacecraft will travel 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers), with an estimated arrival at Psyche in 2029.
To save propellant, boost the spacecraft’s solar-electric propulsion system and adjust its trajectory, Psyche’s mission planners included a Mars flyby during the journey. As the spacecraft flew around the red planet on May 15, Mars’ gravitational pull acted like a natural slingshot, increasing Psyche’s speed and setting it on a direct course to the asteroid.
“We’ve confirmed that Mars gave the spacecraft a 1,000 mile-per-hour boost and shifted its orbital plane by about 1 degree relative to the Sun,” said Don Han, Psyche’s navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. “We are now on course for arrival at the asteroid Psyche in summer 2029.”
The spacecraft came within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the red planet’s surface during the flyby. With all its science instruments and cameras turned on, Psyche carried out a practice run for when it reaches the asteroid and captured spectacular images showcasing unique views of Mars.
A rare look at Mars
In the days leading up to Psyche’s closest pass of Mars, the spacecraft approached from a high angle that enabled a unique perspective of the red planet as an illuminated crescent.
“The thin crescent on approach and the nearly ‘full Mars’ view after we fly past create opportunities for the imaging team for both great calibration observations as well as just plain beautiful photos,” said Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University, ahead of the flyby.
As Psyche drew closer, its cameras viewed nighttime and daytime across different regions of the planet, including the south pole region and wind-scattered dust streaking across surface craters.
The spacecraft’s imaging instruments took thousands of photos, Bell indicated. Calibrating Psyche’s cameras and instruments on a target like Mars ahead of its rendezvous with the metal asteroid is crucial for ensuring everything performs as expected in the space environment.
After arriving at the Psyche asteroid in August 2029, the spacecraft will enter an orbit that shifts lower and higher in altitude to map the space rock fully.
If the spacecraft’s instruments capture data suggesting Psyche was once the metal core of an ancient planetary building block, the asteroid could provide an unprecedented look at the interiors of planets such as Mars and Earth.
