Psyche approaches Mars
Click for original image.
The asteroid probe Psyche is now approaching Mars for a May 15, 2026 fly-by that will slingshot it out to the metal asteroid Psyche in 2029.
The image to the right, cropped and expanded to post here, was taken on May 3, 2026 when the spacecraft was still about three million miles away.
The observation was acquired by the multispectral imager instrument’s panchromatic or broadband filter, with an exposure time of just 2 milliseconds. Even with this very short exposure time, the crescent is extremely bright and parts of the image are oversaturated. The light seen here is sunlight reflected off the surface of Mars and also scattered by dust particles in its atmosphere. Because the quantity of dust in the atmosphere can vary rapidly over time, the anticipated brightness of the crescent was hard to predict before this early image was acquired.
The dustiness of Mars leads to sunlight being scattered by its atmosphere, making the crescent appear to extend farther around the planet than if it had no atmosphere (as with our Moon).Of note, on the right side of the extended crescent, there appears to be a gap, which coincides with the planet’s icy north polar cap. The cap is currently in winter and mission specialists hypothesize that seasonal clouds and hazes may be forming in that region, possibly blocking the atmospheric dust’s ability to scatter sunlight like it does elsewhere around the planet.
Though the spacecraft had had a thruster issue last year, all seems well at this time.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
The asteroid probe Psyche is now approaching Mars for a May 15, 2026 fly-by that will slingshot it out to the metal asteroid Psyche in 2029.
The image to the right, cropped and expanded to post here, was taken on May 3, 2026 when the spacecraft was still about three million miles away.
The observation was acquired by the multispectral imager instrument’s panchromatic or broadband filter, with an exposure time of just 2 milliseconds. Even with this very short exposure time, the crescent is extremely bright and parts of the image are oversaturated. The light seen here is sunlight reflected off the surface of Mars and also scattered by dust particles in its atmosphere. Because the quantity of dust in the atmosphere can vary rapidly over time, the anticipated brightness of the crescent was hard to predict before this early image was acquired.
The dustiness of Mars leads to sunlight being scattered by its atmosphere, making the crescent appear to extend farther around the planet than if it had no atmosphere (as with our Moon).Of note, on the right side of the extended crescent, there appears to be a gap, which coincides with the planet’s icy north polar cap. The cap is currently in winter and mission specialists hypothesize that seasonal clouds and hazes may be forming in that region, possibly blocking the atmospheric dust’s ability to scatter sunlight like it does elsewhere around the planet.
Though the spacecraft had had a thruster issue last year, all seems well at this time.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I am trying to understand how the gravity assist, which will accelerate the probe on its way to the asteroid, works.
The probe will approach Mars in a perpendicular direction and come around the back side of the planet in its orbit around the Sun? The speed gained by the probe as it approaches Mars is offset by speed lost as it flies away.
But as the probe curves around Mars, the planet pulls it with it. This pull speed is not offset by anything in the opposite direction because of the perpendicular approach of the probe towards Mars?
This video makes a good point by saying a space ship would not get a gravity assist from a Sun flyby.
https://youtu.be/5ceD56b1LD8?si=D9GKA64FZAPnOJCn
Something that might help me understand is to consider what happens motion wise if the probe is not moving relative to the Sun. Initially have the probe appear out of nowhere in a location beyond the orbit of Mars. So the probe starts being pulled towards the Sun. Then here comes Mars in its orbit around the Sun. The movement of the probe will no longer be a straight line towards the Sun, but depending on its starting point, the probe will start moving in the direction of the orbit of Mars.
Steve Richter,
Gravity assists from the Sun are certainly possible as the star itself is rotating around the center of the galaxy. It just isn’t really worth it when operating solely inside in the solar system. It’s not that the gravity isn’t offset, it’s that when all the forces are added up, the planet’s gravity wasn’t enough to overcome Psyche’s speed completely. Yes, assuming we could somehow (and there are ways, they’re just somewhat challenging) keep a spacecraft stationary in the Sun’s reference frame, and then let it go, it will be pulled inward by the sun’s gravity, but it will be in an arc, not a straight line. Its trajectory will not be affected by Mars unless it passes through Mars’ Hill sphere, roughly 1,342,000 miles in diameter. Pretty tiny, all things considered.
> Gravity assists from the Sun are certainly possible as the star itself is rotating around the
> center of the galaxy. It just isn’t really worth it when operating solely inside in the solar system.
Hi Nate. I kind of question this. An orbiting planet will pull the probe when it swings around it because the planet is moving independently of the probe. But the probe and the Sun are both rotating around the galaxy at the same speed and because of the same source of attraction. So when the probe swings around the Sun it is moving in the same direction around the galaxy as the Sun is. So there is no pull by the Sun on the probe as they are both equally orbiting the center of the galaxy.
It’s the exact same principle writ large. Think of the galactic core as the Sun in this instance, and the Sun as one of the outer planets. If this were not the case, it wouldn’t work inside the solar system either. It’s the reference frame that matters; you’ve got it regarding a heliocentric reference frame, but with interstellar travel we’d use a galactocentric reference frame, and with that we care about the spacecraft’s velocity relative to objects outside the Solar System.