Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Final images before Aeolus demise
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s Psyche Delivers First Images and Other Data
This mosaic was made from “first light” images acquired Dec. 4 by both of the cameras on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. The star field lies in the constellation Pisces. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU The mission team has celebrated several successes since its launch from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 13. The latest is the operation of the spacecraft’s cameras.
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is on a roll. In the eight weeks since it left Earth on Oct. 13, the orbiter has performed one successful operation after another, powering on scientific instruments, streaming data toward home, and setting a deep-space record with its electric thrusters. The latest achievement: On Monday, Dec. 4, the mission turned on Psyche’s twin cameras and retrieved the first images – a milestone called “first light.”
View the full images here Already 16 million miles (26 million kilometers) from Earth, the spacecraft will arrive at its destination – the asteroid Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter – in 2029. The team wanted to test all of the science instruments early in the long journey to make sure they are working as intended, and to ensure there would be plenty of time to calibrate and adjust them as needed. The imager instrument, which consists of a pair of identical cameras, captured a total of 68 images, all within a star field in the constellation Pisces. The imager team is using the data to verify proper commanding, telemetry analysis, and calibration of the images.
Psyche’s “first light” images make up this mosaic showing a starfield in the constellation Pisces. A version of the mosaic annotated with the names of the stars shown is at bottom.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU “These initial images are only a curtain-opener,” said Arizona State University’s Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead. “For the team that designed and operates this sophisticated instrument, first light is a thrill. We start checking out the cameras with star images like these, then in 2026 we’ll take test images of Mars during the spacecraft’s flyby. And finally, in 2029 we’ll get our most exciting images yet – of our target asteroid Psyche. We look forward to sharing all of these visuals with the public.”
The imager takes pictures through multiple color filters, all of which were tested in these initial observations. With the filters, the team will use photographs in wavelengths of light both visible and invisible to the human eye to help determine the composition of the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The imager team will also use the data to create 3D maps of the asteroid to better understand its geology, which will give clues about Psyche’s history.
Solar Surprise
Earlier in the mission, in late October, the team powered on the magnetometer, which will provide crucial data to help determine how the asteroid formed. Evidence that the asteroid once had a magnetic field would be a strong indication that the body is a partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of an early planet. The information could help us better understand how our own planet formed.
See the Psyche spacecraft in 3D on NASA's Eyes on the Solar System Shortly after being powered on, the magnetometer gave scientists an unexpected gift: It detected a solar eruption, a common occurrence called a coronal mass ejection, where the Sun expels large quantities of magnetized plasma. Since then, the team has seen several of these events and will continue to monitor space weather as the spacecraft travels to the asteroid.
The good news is twofold. Data collected so far confirms that the magnetometer can precisely detect very small magnetic fields. It also confirms that the spacecraft is magnetically “quiet.” The electrical currents powering a probe of this size and complexity have the potential to generate magnetic fields that could interfere with science detections. Because Earth has its own powerful magnetic field, scientists obtained a much better measurement of the spacecraft magnetic field once it was in space.
In the Zone
On Nov. 8, amid all the work with the science instruments, the team fired up two of the four electric propulsion thrusters, setting a record: the first-ever use of Hall-effect thrusters in deep space. Until now, they’d been used only on spacecraft going as far as lunar orbit. By expelling charged atoms, or ions, of xenon gas, the ultra-efficient thrusters will propel the spacecraft to the asteroid (a 2.2-billion-mile, or 3.6-billion-kilometer journey) and help it maneuver in orbit.
Less than a week later, on Nov. 14, the technology demonstration built into the spacecraft, an experiment called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), set its own record. DSOC achieved first light by sending and receiving optical data from far beyond the Moon. The instrument beamed a near-infrared laser encoded with test data from nearly 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) away – the farthest-ever demonstration of optical communications.
The Psyche team has also successfully powered on the gamma-ray detecting component of its third science instrument, the gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer. Next, the instrument’s neutron-detecting sensors will be turned on the week of Dec. 11. Together those capabilities will help the team determine the chemical elements that make up the asteroid’s surface material.
More About the Mission
Arizona State University (ASU) leads the Psyche mission. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. ASU leads the operations of the imager instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego on the design, fabrication, and testing of the cameras.
JPL manages DSOC for the Technology Demonstration Missions program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Space Communications and Navigation program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate.
Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, managed the launch service.
For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/psyche
News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2023-077
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 05, 2023 Related Terms
Psyche Mission Asteroids Jet Propulsion Laboratory Psyche Asteroid The Solar System Explore More
4 min read December’s Night Sky Notes: A Flame in the Sky – the Orion Nebula
It’s that time of year again: winter! Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the cold, crisp…
Article 4 days ago 4 min read NASA Orbiter Snaps Stunning Views of Mars Horizon
Article 1 week ago 3 min read NASA’s Dragonfly to Proceed with Final Mission Design Work
NASA’s Dragonfly mission has been authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and…
Article 1 week ago View the full article
-
By European Space Agency
Week in images: 27 November - 01 December 2023
Discover our week through the lens
View the full article
-
By NASA
3 min read
NASA’s Dragonfly to Proceed with Final Mission Design Work
Artist’s Impression: Dragonfly Departs and heads off toward its next landing spot on Titan. Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben NASA’s Dragonfly mission has been authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and fabrication – known as Phase C – during fiscal year (FY) 2024. The agency is postponing formal confirmation of the mission (including its total cost and schedule) until mid-2024, following the release of the FY 2025 President’s Budget Request.
Earlier this year, Dragonfly – a mission to send a rotorcraft to explore Saturn’s moon Titan – passed all the success criteria of its Preliminary Design Review. The Dragonfly team conducted a re-plan of the mission based on expected funding available in FY 2024 and estimate a revised launch readiness date of July 2028. The Agency will officially assess the mission’s launch readiness date in mid-2024 at the Agency Program Management Council.
“The Dragonfly team has successfully overcome a number of technical and programmatic challenges in this daring endeavor to gather new science on Titan,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “I am proud of this team and their ability to keep all aspects of the mission moving toward confirmation.”
Dragonfly takes a novel approach to planetary exploration, for the first time employing a rotorcraft-lander to travel between and sample diverse sites on Titan. Dragonfly’s goal is to characterize the habitability of the moon’s environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry in an environment where carbon-rich material and liquid water may have mixed for an extended period, and even search for chemical indications of whether water-based or hydrocarbon-based life once existed on Titan.
Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which manages the mission for NASA. The team includes key partners at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado; Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company; NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), the French space agency, in Paris, France; DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Cologne, Germany; and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in Tokyo, Japan. Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate.
Share
Details
Last Updated Nov 28, 2023 Editor WILLIAM KEETER Related Terms
Dragonfly Planetary Science Planetary Science Division Saturn Science & Research Science Mission Directorate The Solar System View the full article
-
By NASA
SSE-Cassini Home Cassini Top 10 Images of 2011 Cassini Overview Mission About the Mission The Grand Finale The Team Top 10s Saturn Tour FAQ Science Overview Rings Titan Enceladus Moons Magnetosphere Multimedia All Multimedia Audio Featured Raw Images Graphics Hall of Fame Images Videos 1 min read
Cassini Top 10 Images of 2011
Where were you during the storm? In 2011, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft circled Saturn for a front-row view of the huge storm there. One of those looks made the mission scientists’ list of Top 10 images of 2011. What else made the list? Check it out.
Groovy Enceladus
Churning Psychedelia
Hiding Little Brother
Quintet of Moons
A Day in the Life
Catching Its Tail
Helene, Close up
Enceladus ‘Footprint’ on Saturn
Saturn’s Radio Period Crossover
Equatorial Titan Clouds
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
SSE-Cassini Home Cassini Top 10 Images of 2012 Cassini Overview Mission About the Mission The Grand Finale The Team Top 10s Saturn Tour FAQ Science Overview Rings Titan Enceladus Moons Magnetosphere Multimedia All Multimedia Audio Featured Raw Images Graphics Hall of Fame Images Videos 1 min read
Cassini Top 10 Images of 2012
As the Cassini spacecraft roams the Saturnian system, each year it opens new windows on an amazing corner of our solar system. Images of mighty Saturn, its majestic rings, and the dynamic moons continue to stun us, offering ever-changing vistas that are truly inspiring. This collection of 10 best images was selected by the scientists on the mission. You can imagine their pride.
A Splendor Seldom Seen
Vortex at Saturn’s North Pole
Tiny Tethys
Gray Egg
Obscured by Rings
Colorful Colossuses and Changing Hues
Titan’s Colorful South Polar Vortex
Classic Trails or Mini-Jets
Enceladus Plume (Raw image)
Closest Dione Flyby
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.