프시케 탐사선이 중력 도움 비행을 위해 화성에 접근하면서 촬영한 영상./NASA

In Greek mythology, there was a beauty whom Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, also envied: Psyche, who was born human and became the goddess of the soul and mind. She incurred the wrath of the goddess by marrying Eros, Aphrodite's son, but after completing all the tasks assigned by her mother-in-law, she herself became a deity and reunited with Eros. Psyche in Greek means soul or breath and is the root of psychology.

This time, Psyche played push-and-pull with Ares, the god of war. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on the 29th (local time) released as the Astronomy Picture of the Day a time-lapse video made by stitching together images taken as the Psyche probe approached the Red Planet, Mars. Mars, the English name for the planet, is the Roman rendering of Ares, the Greek god of war.

In May, the Psyche probe increased its speed with a flyby using Mars' gravity. Flyby in Korean is "gravity assist." It is a flight technique that saves fuel by pushing and pulling with other celestial bodies. It gains the power to head for its destination by increasing speed under the pull of another body's gravity and then abruptly changing direction.

Huygens, a double-ring impact crater on Mars, is captured during the Psyche spacecraft's flyby. The massive crater in the southern highlands is named after Dutch astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens. With a diameter of 470 km, it is the largest among Martian craters whose morphology remains nearly intact./Courtesy of NASA

Just as Earth has gravity that pulls objects, planets such as Jupiter and Mars and the satellites orbiting them all have a certain level of gravity. Once a probe exits Earth's sphere of gravitational influence, it travels along a set trajectory, moving in circles while using the gravity of planets and satellites scattered throughout space.

The gravity-assist technique became common for space probes after the Soviet Luna 3 lunar mission in 1959. Thanks to it, Voyager and Cassini were able to travel much farther than they could have on their own fuel alone.

The Psyche probe was launched Oct. 13, 2023, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carried by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Its destination is the asteroid of the same name. It is expected to arrive in the orbit of the metallic asteroid "16 Psyche" around July–August 2029.

As it passed Mars, Psyche tested instruments that will analyze the composition and magnetic field of the Psyche asteroid. Most asteroids are made of rock or ice, but the Psyche probe has the first mission to explore an asteroid made of metal, a fundamental building block of planets.

※ This article has been translated by AI. Share your feedback here.