PREVIEW

AssetID: 55693968

Headline: NASA's Psyche spacecraft reaches Mars to complete 'slingshot' flyby

Caption: BY MARK WORGAN This crescent view of Mars comes from the Psyche spacecraft on Thursday as it continues its approach for its flyby of the red planet today (15May2026). The spacecraft will pass within about 2,800 miles (4,500km) of the Martian surface at a speed of roughly 12,333mph (19,848kph). Launched in October 2023, the Psyche spacecraft uses a solar-electric propulsion system powered by xenon gas, gradually building speed during its journey through the Solar System. Mission planners are using the Mars flyby as a gravity assist manoeuvre, allowing the spacecraft to conserve propellant by using the planet’s gravitational pull to alter its trajectory. Scientists also plan to use the encounter as an opportunity to test and calibrate the spacecraft’s scientific instruments before it reaches the asteroid Psyche in 2029. The mission team intends to use Psyche’s multispectral imager to capture thousands of observations of Mars during the flyby. To prepare for the flyby, the operations team carried out a trajectory correction manoeuvre on 23 February, firing the spacecraft’s thrusters continuously for 12 hours to refine its course. Sarah Bairstow, Psyche’s mission planning lead at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said: “We are now exactly on target for the flyby, and we’ve programmed the flight computer with everything that the spacecraft will do throughout May. “This is our first opportunity in flight to calibrate Psyche’s imager with something bigger than a few pixels, and we’ll also make observations with the mission’s other science instruments.” Scientists said Mars would initially appear only as a thin crescent because the spacecraft is approaching the planet from its night side. Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University, said: “We are approaching Mars at a very high phase angle, which means we are catching up with the planet from its night side with only a sliver of sunlight creating a thin crescent. “The thin crescent on approach and the nearly ‘full Mars’ view after we fly past create opportunities for the imaging team for both great calibration observations as well as just plain beautiful photos.” Researchers also hope the flyby could help reveal whether Mars is surrounded by a faint dusty ring, created by particles thrown into space after micrometeorites strike its moons, Phobos and Deimos. Other instruments aboard Psyche will study the Martian magnetic field and monitor changes in cosmic radiation during the encounter. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for the mission at University of California, Berkeley, said the flyby’s main purpose remained to help the spacecraft on its journey. “Ultimately, though, the only reason for this flyby is to get a little help from Mars to speed us up and tilt our trajectory in the direction of the asteroid Psyche,” she said. “But if all our instruments are powered up, and we can do important testing and calibration of the science instruments, that would be the icing on the cake.” Mission controllers will monitor radio signals exchanged with the spacecraft through NASA’sDeep Space Network to confirm the success of the flyby. Changes in the spacecraft’s speed will be measured through Doppler shifts in the radio signals as Psyche passes the planet. Several other Mars missions, including NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and the Curiosity rover and Perseverance rover, will also support the operation alongside missions operated by the European Space Agency. Scientists said comparing data from the various spacecraft would help improve calibration techniques and support future missions travelling to Mars and beyond.

Keywords: astronomy,science,space,psyche,mars,photo,feature

PersonInImage: A crescent view of Mars from the Psyche spacecraft on 14 May.