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Scheduled to launch on Oct. 5, 2023, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Psyche mission is a journey to a metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it may be the partial core of a planetesimal (one of the building blocks of a rocky planet) or could be primordial material that never melted. The mission aims to help answer fundamental questions about Earth’s own metal core and the formation of our solar system. The spacecraft also will carry NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), a technology demonstration that aims to show how lasers could increase data transmission rates far beyond the capacity of current radio frequency systems used on spacecraft today. Tune in as we hear from experts behind the mission. JPL Director Laurie Leshin will provide opening remarks, and briefing participants are expected to include: Lori Glaze, director, Planetary Sciences Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of Psyche, Arizona State University Henry Stone, project manager, Psyche, JPL Abi Biswas, project technologist for DSOC, JPL Serkan Bastug, mission manager, Launch Services Program, NASA Kennedy

A world first. New footage from Mars rendered in stunning 4K resolution. We also talk about the cameras on board the Martian rovers and how we made the video. The cameras on board the rovers were the height of technology when the respective missions launched. A question often asked is: ‘Why don’t we actually have live video from Mars?’ Although the cameras are high quality, the rate at which the rovers can send data back to earth is the biggest challenge. Curiosity can only send data directly back to earth at 32 kilo-bits per second. Instead, when the rover can connect to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we get more favourable speeds of 2 Megabytes per second. However, this link is only available for about 8 minutes each Sol, or Martian day. As you would expect, sending HD video at these speeds would take a long long time. As nothing really moves on Mars, it makes more sense to take and send back images. Credit: NASA Music from Epidemic Sound

The Deep Space Network, NASA’s international collection of giant radio antennas used to communicate with spacecraft at the Moon and beyond, helps scientists and engineers use gravity and radio science experiments to learn more about our planetary neighborhood. After reaching a spacecraft reaches its destination, it uses radio antennas to communicate with the Deep Space Network, which in turn transmits radio signals back to the spacecraft. Every spacecraft travels in a predetermined path emitting radio signals as it orbits around its target. Scientists and engineers can infer the spacecraft's location and how fast it's going by measuring changes in the spacecraft's radio signal frequency. This is made possible by the Doppler effect, the same phenomenon that causes a siren to sound different as it travels towards and away from you. The Doppler phenomenon is observed here when the spacecraft and the Deep Space Network antenna move in relation to each other. Differences between the frequency of radio signals sent by the spacecraft as it orbits and signals received on Earth give us details about the gravitational field of a planetary body. For example, if the gravity is slightly stronger, the spacecraft will accelerate slightly more. If gravity is slightly weaker, the spacecraft will accelerate slightly less. By developing a model of the planetary body's gravitational field, which can be mapped as a gravitational shape, scientists and researchers can deduce information about its internal structure. The Deep Space Network was developed by and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. The antennas of the Deep Space Network are the indispensable link to robotic explorers venturing beyond Earth. They provide the crucial connection for commanding our spacecraft and receiving never-before-seen images and scientific information on Earth, propelling our understanding of the universe, our solar system and ultimately, our place within it. JPL manages the Deep Space Network for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program, based at NASA Headquarters within the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system. With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection. While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments. SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe. The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Lead Producer Tom Bridgman (SVS): Lead Visualizer Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Editor This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14263. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14263. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines. Video Description: On the left side of the frame is the full circle of the Sun. It appears in a golden yellow color, but splotchy and with thin yellow wisps extending from the surface. Some areas are very bright and others almost black. The whole Sun rotates steadily, with one full rotation taking 12 minutes in this time lapse. There are usually only a few bright regions visible at a time and they shift and flash like small fires. From these regions there are wispy loops reaching up above the surface that rapidly change shape and size. On the right side of the frame are two white-outlined squares with enlargements of interesting regions of the Sun.