On Friday, October 13th, 2023, Nasa launched its Psyche mission. The Psyche probe was carried into Earth’s orbit by a Falcon 9 Heavy rocket from SpaceX, and from there, it will travel 2.2 billion miles over six years to an asteroid between Jupiter and Mars. But why all this effort to visit an asteroid? Well, the asteroid Psyche, named for the Greek Goddess ofÂ
the soul, is thought to be the nickel-iron core of an early planet. On this mission, scientists hope to confirm that Psyche is, in fact, a remnant core and use the data collected on this mission to help us discover the secrets of our own planet’s core. Psyche alone contains 1 percent of the asteroid belt’s mass, making it one of the most massive asteroids in the solar system. Scientists have theorized that one or more collisions between Psyche and other objects in space destroyed the mantle and crust of the asteroid, exposing only the core. Suppose it is confirmed that Psyche is the remnant core of a planet. In that case, this will provide scientists with a unique opportunity to study what makes up the core of a planet in a way that we cannot do with the Earth’s core and could provide information about how terrestrial planets are formed.
Besides the primary asteroid science mission, Psyche also carries equipment for a secondary technology demonstration mission called Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC). This experiment will send data back to Earth via lasers rather than radio waves, which allows much more significant amounts of data to be transferred quickly. This technology demonstration was planned to show the viability of sending and receiving video transmission between Earth and astronauts on Mars. The laser transmitter flying on the spacecraft was built just 3 miles from Madison High School at the Florham Park location of the company CACI. The DSOC laser transmitter will be turned on in the upcoming weeks. It will quickly set a new record for the most extended laser communications link ever demonstrated by humanity up until this point.