Psyche Inspired - Copper Class

It can be hard to grasp how large things are in space. We often compare incomprehensibly large objects with others that we don't have any experience with. Although it is still difficult to understand the size of an entire city, many of us have experienced walking down the streets and seeing them from an airplane. By connecting facts about the asteroid with human experiences, I hope to make the object and mission feel more real. 

I originally created this image using a previous visualization of the asteroid for the infographic. I wanted to show how large it would appear compared to the Earth as seen from the International Space Station. However, this (mildly terrifying) image could suggest that Psyche would hit Earth, so this was scrapped in favor of the other image.

Spacecraft tend to be forgotten about between their launch and their arrival to the destination. However, this time isn't just spent floating through empty space. The spacecraft and those running it from Earth are busy adjusting orbits, testing equipment, and doing everything they can to make sure the mission is successful.
Unfortunately, the dates are no longer accurate due to the launch delay...

This project is meant to encourage interest in Psyche and other NASA missions and provide some insight into what it takes to send spacecraft to other worlds. I hoped to get the reader to imagine being in the mission team's position and feel the excitement of uncovering a strange world with a dramatic history. The kid's book style was meant to provide a sense of nostalgia and accessibility for all age groups. 

I created this interactive project to give the users an interactive experience with the asteroid and its history as well as the types of data that we hope to obtain. Once it becomes available, I hope to pursue this project again to provide access to the actual data from the mission.