WASHINGTON — NASA is investigating a problem with the electric propulsion system on its Psyche asteroid spacecraft, but an agency official said it is not currently a major concern.
In a statement posted by NASA on an agency website April 29, but not widely publicized until April 30, NASA said the electric thrusters on the Psyche spacecraft shut down April 1 when pressure fell in a line that feeds xenon propellant to the thrusters.
The pressure dropped from 36 pounds per square inch (248 kilopascals) to 26 pounds per square inch (179 kilopascals), NASA said, causing the thrusters to stop. NASA did not disclose how quickly the pressure dropped or other details about the problem.
Psyche launched in October 2023 on a mission to the main belt asteroid of the same name. The spacecraft turned on its Hall effect thrusters in May 2024 that, along with a Mars flyby in May 2026, will allow the spacecraft to arrive at Psyche in August 2029.
Speaking at a meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group April 30, Louise Prockter, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said teams at JPL were studying the thruster issue. “The team at JPL is doing a great job figuring out exactly which part is the problem and what’s going on with that,” she said. Both the electric propulsion system and the spacecraft bus were provided by what is now Maxar Space Systems.
NASA said that Psyche can continue to coast until the middle of June before there is a significant effect on its trajectory. Solutions could include switching to a backup propellant line.
“This kind of thing happens and that’s why we build redundancy into our missions,” Prockter said. “We don’t have any concerns at the moment about it but we’re obviously keeping tabs on it.”
Psyche had been working well since its launch on a Falcon Heavy in October 2023, but suffered problems in its development. That included software testing delays late in its development that pushed back its launch from August 2022 and increased the mission’s cost from $1 billion to $1.2 billion.
An investigation into the Psyche problems revealed broader institutional issues at JPL caused by a heavy workload and exacerbated by communications problems within the lab.
