(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin)
We saw it coming: NASA has finally decided to postpone the launch of the Psyche spacecraft to the asteroid (16) Psyche.
The engineers of the agency couldn’t solve problems with the software responsible for controlling the device. I talked about them in a previous entry.
Psyche is a NASA program to study small bodies in the solar system, in this case the metallic Main Belt asteroid (16) Psyche.
Scientists think that the asteroid may be the core of a protoplanet or its fragment formed in the early solar system.
Psyche’s scientific program is designed for 21 months, during that time the probe will study:
- the physical properties of the asteroid
- the internal structure
- morphology and composition of its surface
The mission will use four scientific instruments and all the work will be done from orbit.
NASA initially planned to launch the probe in early August using the Spacex Falcon Heavy rocket.
However, at the end of May, the team discovered that the software responsible for controlling the probe, as well as the test benches, were not working correctly. The launch was postponed to September.
Now, the agency has announced that they did not have enough time to complete the additional checks to meet the launch window closing on October 11.
Now the probe could be launched either in 2023 or 2024. The exact start date will be announced later.
However, the relative orbital positions of Psyche and the Earth will make the mission to arrive at the asteroid no earlier than 2029 or 2030, respectively.
The bad news didn't stop there, though: the delay in the launch of Psyche led to the disruption of the launch of the Janus program.
The probes of this mission will target two double asteroids: 1991 VH and 1996 FG3.
The devices were supposed to fly as a payload on the same rocket as Psyche. Now the NASA scientists will have to choose other asteroids as new targets.
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