While other spaceships like Lucy have used solar energy to power instruments, Psyche will be one of NASA’s first space missions to use solar energy for both on-board and propulsion operations.
Paulo Lozano, director of MIT’s space propulsion lab, says Psyche could lay the groundwork for more solar-powered space exploration. Ultimately, the technology could help us study multiple celestial objects over longer periods of time and potentially make human-crewed missions outside of Earth orbit more affordable and feasible.
“It actually opens up the possibility of exploring and commercializing space in ways we’ve never seen before,” says Lozano.
Since a spaceship with solar-electric propulsion requires less fuel than a chemically powered one, it offers more space for cargo, scientific instruments and, at some point, astronauts. One company, Accion Systems, is developing more efficient ion thrusters for cubesats, as well as larger satellites and other spacecraft.
Solar propulsion technology is already common in satellites orbiting the earth, but until now it has not been a powerful alternative to chemically powered engines that are so often used in spacecraft into space. Advances in solar-electric propulsion will change that.
The technology behind Psyche had its first major test in Dawn, an exploration spaceship that uses solar energy and ion thrusters. Dawn finally fell silent as she orbited the dwarf planet Ceres (where it will remain in orbit for decades) in 2018, three years after the mission’s actual end. These engines can run for years without running out of fuel, but they offer relatively little thrust compared to traditional engines.
Psyche’s thrusters will be able to generate three times as much thrust as its predecessors, and about a year after launch, it will get some help from the pull of Mars to change its trajectory before finally reaching its destination in 2026 achieved.
