A billion-dollar mission to put an innovative probe into orbit — around a metal-rich asteroid resembling the core of an early planet — is on hold until next summer at the earliest, NASA announced Friday.
A billion-dollar mission to put an innovative probe into orbit — around a metal-rich asteroid resembling the core of an early planet — is on hold until next summer at the earliest because of problems with test equipment and time needed to complete software testing, NASA announced Friday.
NASA takes the cost and schedule commitments of its projects and programs very seriously. We are exploring options for the Psyche mission in the context of the Discovery Program, and a decision on the path forward will be made in the coming months.The Psyche mission is targeting a unique metal-rich asteroid that resembles the exposed core of an early planet. NASA says the Psyche mission offers a valuable opportunity to study one of the building blocks of the early solar system.
Assembled with components provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Maxar Technologies, which supplied the spacecraft chassis, electric thrusters and other major elements, the simulator is needed in part to verify the probe's complex guidance, avigation and control software, or GN&C. "So we have today, a beautiful, functional spacecraft. It's built and ready. But ... we just had insufficient time to verify and validate functionality associated with the GN&C software and the fault protection, and to fix any issues that we would then find during that testing."
"This will be a continuation-termination review that will look at the results of the independent review and the recommendations put forward by the project," Glaze said."And that assessment will be made looking at the whole range and the implications for Psyche, for the Discovery Program and for the planetary portfolio."
The Psyche spacecraft during work to install electric thrusters in 2021. The spacecraft is now complete, but launch is on hold until at least July 2023 because of problems completing software testing.For a launch in 2022, the spacecraft would have reached Psyche in 2026. Launches in 2023 or 2024 would result in arrivals in 2029 and 2030 respectively. The 2023 window opens next July.
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