Search | New Scientist

A major component of NASA?s Psyche spacecraft has been delivered to NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the phase known as assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) is now underway. This photo, shot March 28, 2021 shows engineers and technicians preparing to move the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis from its shipping container to a dolly in High Bay 1 of JPL?s Spacecraft Assembly Facility. The photo was captured just after the chassis was delivered to JPL by Maxar Technologies. Maxar?s team in Palo Alto, California, designed and built the SEP Chassis, which includes all the primary and secondary structure and the hardware components needed for the high-power electrical system, the propulsion system, the thermal system, guidance and navigation sensors and actuators, and the high-gain antenna. Over the next year, additional hardware will be added to the spacecraft including the command and data handling system, a power distribution assembly, the X-band telecommunications hardware suite, three science instruments (two imagers, two magnetometers, and a gamma ray neutron Spectrometer), and a deep space optical communications technology demonstrator. The spacecraft will finish assembly and then undergo rigorous checkout and testing before being shipped to NASA?s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, for an August 2022 launch to the main asteroid belt. Psyche will arrive at the metal-rich asteroid of the same name in 2026, orbiting for 21 months to investigate its composition. Scientists think that Psyche is made up of mostly iron and nickel ? similar to Earth?s core. Exploring the asteroid could give valuable insight into how our own planet and others formed. Arizona State University in Tempe leads the mission. JPL is responsible for the mission?s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. For more information about NASA?s Psyche mission, go to: http://www.nasa.gov/psyche or https://psyche.asu.edu/ Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

2022 preview: A round-up of the year's most exciting space missions

29 December 2021

Around a dozen missions to the moon are scheduled in 2022, along with a rover landing on Mars and a spacecraft headed to in-vestigate the metal asteroid Psyche

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) feeding on on Turtlegrass (Thalassia testudinum) seagrass bed. The Bahamas.

2022 preview: China to host crucial meeting in a bid to save nature

29 December 2021

Will governments finally take action to halt the devastating biodiversity crisis at the COP15 meeting in Kunming, China, in April?

2022 preview: Large Hadron Collider will reach for the edge of physics

29 December 2021

The Large Hadron Collider has been in a coincidental lockdown during the pan-demic for planned up-grades, but it will soon be back online and hunting for new physics

2021 preview: We will find out if microplastics are harming our cells

30 December 2020

Despite mounting evidence that we eat, drink and breathe microplastics it still isn't clear if they enter our bodies and cause harm, but in 2021 we should get some answers

2021 preview: Three missions will make February 2021 the month of Mars

30 December 2020

February 2021 will see three missions arriving at Mars: the Hope orbiter from the United Arab Emirates, the Chinese Tianwen-1 mission and NASA's Perseverance rover

2021 preview: A crucial year for action on climate change

28 December 2020

Major climate summits delayed in 2020 are back on in 2021, offering several big opportunities to confront the climate emergency

2021 preview: How soon will a covid-19 vaccine return life to normal?

24 December 2020

We have a coronavirus vaccine, but normal life is still some way off. In the meantime, here are the big issues facing us in the months ahead

What to expect from the cutting edge of science and tech in 2020

18 December 2019

From anti-ageing drugs to self-driving cars and long-lost human ancestors, New Scientist experts reveal what the biggest science stories will be in 2020

Ever ran screaming from a concert? Keaton Henson has a treat in store

16 July 2018

Aided by the performance artist Brendan Walker, the folk-rock musician is giving concert-goers at London's Barbican Hall a taste of the anxiety disorder that keeps him off the stage.