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other spacecraft, like LucyPsyche used solar power to power the instruments, Psyche will be one of NASA’s first deep space missions to use solar power for both onboard operations and propulsion.

Paulo LozanoThe director of MIT’s space propulsion lab says Psyche could lay the groundwork for more solar-powered space exploration. Eventually, the technology could help us probe multiple celestial bodies over longer periods of time, potentially making human crewed missions outside of Earth’s orbit more affordable and feasible.

“It actually opens up the possibility of exploring and commercializing space in a way we haven’t seen before,” Lozano says.

Because a solar-powered spacecraft requires less propellant than a chemically-powered spacecraft, it has more space on board for cargo, scientific instruments and, one day, astronauts. A company, Acceleration Systems, developing more efficient ion thrusters for Cubesats as well as larger satellites and other spacecraft.

Solar propulsion technology is already common in Earth-orbiting satellites, but until now it wasn’t a powerful enough alternative to the chemically powered engines often used in deep space spacecraft. Advances in solar electric propulsion will change that.

The technology behind Psyche had its first major test aboard Dawn, an exploration spacecraft that uses solar power and ion thrusters. Dawn finally fell silent as it orbited the dwarf planet Ceres (where it will remain in orbit for decades) in 2018, three years after the mission ended. These thrusters can run for years without running out of fuel, but they provide relatively low thrust compared to conventional propulsion.

Psyche’s thrusters will be able to generate three times more thrust than their predecessors and will have some assistance from Mars’ gravity to alter its trajectory before reaching its target in 2026, about a year after launch.