Electric Propulsion for the Psyche Mission: A New Trajectory and Path to Launch

NASA’s Psyche mission launched on October 13th, 2023, and began its 6-year cruise to the metallic asteroid Psyche, the largest metal asteroid in the solar system. The yearlong launch delay necessitated a redesign of the cruise and orbital trajectories from the original plans, and this caused significant changes to the way the electric propulsion system will be used during the mission. The total cruise duration increased from 3.6 to 5.7 years compared to the 2022 launch case, and the system will now be operated for much longer at the lower power levels. The design of the electric propulsion system accommodated these differences with no hardware or software changes, and although the planned system usage is very different an updated thruster life validation analysis demonstrated that there is still significant life margin. Final subsystem testing prior to launch was successfully accomplished, and the spacecraft was loaded with 1085.5 kg of xenon propellant.