Psyche spacecraft's Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis being removed from its shipping container. The SEP uses solar power to ionise xenon gas and accelerate it out of thrusters to propel the spacecraft. The Psyche mission will visit a metal-rich asteroid of the same name that lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid is thought to be the nickel-iron core of an early planet, or protoplanet, that lost its surface in series of violent collisions. Investigating the composition of the asteroid should give insight into the metallic cores of terrestrial planets such as Earth. Psyche is planned to launch in August 2022. Photographed in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA, on 28th March 2021. | |
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