NASA's Amazing Spacecraft Video as it Zoomed Past Mars
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
The space agency has released a mesmerising video showing images captured by its Psyche spacecraft as it flew past Mars on its way to an even more distant asteroid.
The Psyche spacecraft is on its way to visit and study asteroid Psyche, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and is expected to reach the asteroid in July 2029. However, it looped past Mars en route and the images and video show what it would be like to skim over the Martian surface, from a distance of 4,609 km (2,864 miles).
As the spacecraft approached Mars at 12,333 mph (19,848 kph), the Red Planet initially appeared as a crescent, due to the spacecraft's position and the Mars's angle, relative to the Sun. But once the spacecraft got closer, it was able to capture detailed views of the Martian surface, including craters, the planet's south polar ice cap (yes, Mars has ice caps - take a look at these gorgeous images of the Frosty Beauty of Winter on Mars released in 2023) and the enormous, double-ringed Huygens crater. The images were captured throughout the duration of the flyby, which lasted a month, and gave the spacecraft a roughly 1,000 mph speed boost as it sped off deeper into space.
"This gravity assist was years in the making, and the navigation team nailed it - Psyche flew by Mars on exactly the trajectory we needed to set us on a path to rendezvous with the asteroid in the summer of 2029,” says Bob Mase, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Psyche is a 140 mile wide (226 km) asteroid that could contain a core of iron, nickel and gold worth $10,000 quadrillion. To put that into perspective, it's worth more than our entire global economy, says Forbes. Whilst most of the attention has been focused on the perceived 'wealth' of the asteroid, NASA's purpose for visiting the enormous lump of metal is not, they say, to check out mining opportunities.
Most asteroids are rocky or icy, but since Psyche is thought to be the exposed metallic heart of a dead planet. It is hoped that the mission will provide insights into the our understanding of Earth’s planet’s core.
If you are interested in the more technical aspects of the spacecraft and would like to know more about what scientists learned during the Mars fly past, here's a 3 minute NASA video.
