The NASA Psyche Mission : The First Up-Close Exploration of a Metal-Rich World

This book serves as the primary initial reference and starting point for readers to understand the background, motivation, and goals/objectives of the NASA Psyche Discovery mission to explore the large metal-rich Main Belt asteroid (16) Psyche. Chapters describe the development of the mission and its scientific goals, measurement objectives, and observational strategies; the high-fidelity instrument investigations that are being used to achieve those goals/objectives; the details of the innovative spacecraft systems and operational processes that are taking those instruments to this interesting asteroid; and the detailed design of the mission that will be carried out there.

The book begins with a detailed description of the mission design, including the fascinating history of the mission’s origins and the many challenges encountered on the way to launch. The next five chapters then provide background, context, details, and plans from each of the mission’s five science-focused thematic Working Groups. Those are then followed by four chapters that describe each of the mission’s science instrument investigations in detail, and one chapter that provides detailed information about the spacecraft and its many subsystems that had to be optimized to conduct this specific mission. Finally, the collection ends with a wonderful chapter describing the mission’s novel and ambitious student and public engagement program, which plays a major role in the team’s communication and outreach to the many different stakeholders in the mission.

Reprinted from Space Science Reviews, Topical Collection: The NASA Psyche Mission: Science Instruments and Investigations

Jim Bell is is a Regents Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Astronomy at Cornell University. He is an active astronomer and planetary scientist doing research focusing on the geology, composition, and mineralogy of the surfaces of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Jim has supported or played key leadership roles in NASA robotic solar system exploration using the Hubble Space Telescope, Mars rovers, and flyby and orbiter missions sent to Mars, the Moon, several asteroids, and the outer solar system. He is also an author of many popular science books and was President of The Planetary Society from 2008-2020. He is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society and the American Geophysical Union and has received more than a dozen NASA Group Achievement Awards as well as the AAS Carl Sagan Medal for public communication in science. He has a B.S. in Geological & Planetary Sciences from Caltech and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Geology & Geophysics from the University of Hawai’i.

Carol Polanskey is the Project Scientist for the Psyche Mission, a Principal Science Systems Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her work focuses on science implementation for interplanetary orbital spacecraft during both development and operations. She has previously managed science operations for the Dawn Mission to (4) Vesta and (1) Ceres and the 2001 Mars Odyssey Mission and was a Co-Investigator and instrument representative for the magnetometer and dust detector on the Galileo Mission to Jupiter. She has a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the Pennsylvania State University, an M.S. in Geophysics and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the California Institute of Technology.
 
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a planetary scientist and PI of the NASA Psyche mission. She is Director of the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. Previously, she was a Vice President at Arizona State University, Director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution for Science, and faculty at MIT. Elkins-Tanton's research focuses on the formation and evolution of rocky planets, volcanic activity and extinctions on Earth, as well as on effective teams and future-facing educational practices. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She has a B.S. in Geology an M.S. in Geochemistry, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics, all from MIT.