NASA News – Week Ending October 6, 2023

NASA News – Week Ending October 6, 2023

• Preparing to journey to a metal world.
• A milestone for a simulated Mars mission.
• And celebrating an anniversary for our agency.

A few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

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We are targeting no earlier than Oct. 12 for the launch of our Psyche spacecraft on a 2.2-billion-mile journey to study a metal-rich asteroid of the same name. The Psyche asteroid lies in the outer portion of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and may be able to tell us more about the formation of rocky planets like Earth.

This is NASA’s first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice.

The four person volunteer crew of our first yearlong CHAPEA Mars analog mission recently spent its 100th day inside the mission’s 1,700-square-foot habitat at our Johnson Space Center. The crew is simulating activities astronauts will do during future human missions on Mars.

Lessons learned through Artemis missions on and around the Moon along with simulated missions, like CHAPEA, will help us prepare to send astronauts to Mars.

Oct. 1 marked the 65th anniversary of NASA officially opening for business. The agency was created to lead America’s civilian space program in response to Soviet advances in space exploration. It also incorporated elements of its predecessor – the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which had been founded to advance aeronautics research.

Within days of opening, NASA began work on America’s first human spaceflight program.

This summer, our Student Airborne Research Program or SARP celebrated its 15th anniversary. The summer internship program offers upper-level undergraduate students hands-on research experience as part of real science campaigns onboard NASA Airborne Science Program flying science laboratories — aircraft outfitted specifically for research projects.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA. For more about what else we’re up to check out nasa.gov.