{"id":102886,"date":"2026-05-11T13:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=102886"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:02:33","slug":"psyche-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/psyche-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Psyche Spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Psyche Spacecraft Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, NASA&#8217;s Psyche spacecraft captured a stunning crescent image of Mars from nearly 5 million kilometres away.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Psyche Spacecraft<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was launched on <\/span><b>October 13, 2023 by NASA.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is on a mission to reach the <\/span><b>metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asteroid Psyche\u2019s gravity will <\/span><b>capture the spacecraft in late July 2029<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and Psyche will begin its prime mission in August.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will <\/span><b>spend about two years orbiting the asteroid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to take pictures, map the surface, and collect data to determine Psyche\u2019s composition.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Features of Psyche Spacecraft<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The body of the Psyche spacecraft is about the size of a small van.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It uses a <\/span><b>solar-electric propulsion system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> powered by xenon gas, slowly gaining speed over time as it travels through space.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Instruments of <\/span><b>Psyche Spacecraft<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Magnetometer: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will look for evidence of an ancient <\/span><b>magnetic field at the asteroid Psyche<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will help scientists <\/span><b>determine the chemical elements<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that make up the asteroid\u2019s surface material.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Multispectral Imager: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It consists of a pair of identical cameras equipped with filters and telescopic lenses to photograph the surface of the asteroid in different wavelengths of light.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/science\/story\/nasa-psyche-spacecraft-mars-crescent-gravity-assist-2026-asteroid-2029-2909558-2026-05-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psyche Spacecraft is on a mission to reach the metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche. Read more about Psyche Spacecraft, Features, Payload, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":102893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7460],"class_list":{"0":"post-102886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-psyche-spacecraft","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102886"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102934,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102886\/revisions\/102934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}