Psyche Uses Mars Gravity Assist to Set Course for Asteroid 16 Psyche

Overview

• Psyche, which skimmed 2,864 miles above Mars on May 15, used the planet’s gravity to bend its path toward the metal‑rich asteroid 16 Psyche.
• Deep Space Network tracking confirmed a 1,000 mph speed gain and about a 1‑degree orbital plane shift that set the spacecraft on course for arrival in summer 2029.
• The team powered on imagers, magnetometers, and a gamma‑ray/neutron spectrometer for a full rehearsal, capturing thousands of pictures to calibrate the cameras and refine image‑processing tools.
• Early readings suggest the magnetometer may have sensed Mars’ bow shock, the zone where the solar wind slows and diverts around the planet, while the spectrometer gathered Mars reference data for calibration.
• The probe now resumes solar‑electric thrust toward orbital mapping in 2029, work that could reveal how the interiors of rocky worlds formed if 16 Psyche is a stripped planetary core.