There is an issue with the advanced thrusters on NASA's Psyche spacecraft.

      The artist's illustration shows NASA's Psyche spacecraft en route to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft was launched in October 2023 and is set to reach its destination in 2029.

      NASA initiated its Psyche mission to explore a peculiar metal asteroid in October 2023. Since its launch, the spacecraft has been traveling through the solar system toward its objective in the main asteroid belt, but NASA announced this week that the spacecraft is facing an issue with its thrusters and is currently coasting.

      Psyche employs an unconventional propulsion system that utilizes ionized xenon, resulting in a blue glow. These thrusters consume minimal amounts of xenon and eject charged atoms for propulsion. While electric thrusters are commonly used in low-Earth orbit applications like satellites, their use in deep space missions is less frequent.

      Despite producing only a small amount of thrust, this system is sufficient to maneuver the spacecraft in the vacuum of space. The thrusters are so efficient that they can operate continually for years without exhausting the 2,000 lbs of onboard fuel.

      Currently, it appears that fuel pressure in the system has decreased from 36 psi to approximately 26 psi. NASA did not specify the rate of this pressure drop, but confirmed that the thrusters were automatically turned off as a result.

      The cause of the pressure drop is still unknown, but NASA states that it has several weeks to resolve the issue before the absence of thrusters affects the mission.

      "The mission team has decided to halt thrusting while engineers investigate the pressure drop," NASA mentioned in an update. "The mission design allows for a temporary suspension of thrusting until at least mid-June before the spacecraft's trajectory might be impacted."

      Additionally, there is a backup option available, as two fuel lines are connected to the propulsion system. If needed, Psyche could switch to the backup fuel line instead of the primary one, potentially allowing continued use of the thrusters.

      However, NASA personnel are not overly concerned about the situation at this time, according to a representative who spoke this week.

      "These issues can occur, which is why we incorporate redundancy into our missions," said Louise Prockter, director of NASA's planetary science division, during a meeting with the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, as reported by SpaceNews. "Currently, we don't have any concerns about it, but we are certainly monitoring the situation."

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      NASA's Psyche spacecraft has achieved a milestone by transmitting data back to Earth using lasers for the first time. The experimental laser communication system aboard the Psyche spacecraft was successfully utilized to send data from a distance of over 140 million miles (226 million kilometers). This system, known as Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), has previously been employed for testing and even transmitting a video of a cat to explore the viability of laser communications in addition to standard radio communications. While the Psyche spacecraft has an independent radio communication system for sending scientific data, DSOC has now been able to work in conjunction with Psyche's systems to relay engineering data back to Earth.

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