Psyche Spacecraft Completes Mars Flyby

NASA’s Psyche space probe completed its close approach to Mars on May 15, coming within 4,609 kilometers of the planet’s surface. During the flyby, he took this image and others. This representative color image, captured by the Psyche Multispectral Imaging Instrument, features the double-ringed crater Huygens and the surrounding heavily cratered southern highlands.

This flyby used a gravity assist from Mars to provide a critical increase in speed and to adjust the spacecraft’s orbital plane without using an onboard propellant, thereby sending it toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. When it arrives in August 2029, it will orbit and then map the asteroid and collect scientific data. If the asteroid turns out to be the metallic core of an ancient planetesimal, it could provide a unique window into the interior of rocky planets like Earth.

Learn more about the flyover and see more photos from the event.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU