Psyche Inspired: Jessica Gurney

Jessica Gurney Headshot

Institution: University of Arizona

Major: Astronomy

Psyche Inspired Class: 2024-2025

Reflections on Psyche Inspired

Reflections on Project 1: Psyche Mission Orbit A Notebook

This book is the first in a series about the four orbits the spacecraft will inhabit once it reaches Psyche. The cover features my drawn interpretation of the asteroid surrounded with a light up electromagnetic field. On the back is a blurb about how and why scientists are going to look for an electric field. The interior is hand sewn and finished with handmade marbled end pages.

Psyche Mission Orbit A Notebook

Jessica Gurney

November 15th, 2024

Major: Astronomy

Genre/Medium: bookbinding

About the work:

This is the “Psyche Mission Orbit A Notebook.” This book is the first in a series about the four orbits the spacecraft will inhabit once it reaches Psyche. In orbit A, the mission focuses on detecting an electromagnetic field. The cover features my drawn interpretation of the asteroid, surrounded by a lit-up electromagnetic field. On the back is a blurb explaining about how and why scientists are going to look for an electromagnetic field, and what it would mean if they find one.

For this project I wanted the cover to feel like a storybook. Book covers need to not only grasp the readers’ attention, but convey the tone or genre of the book through colors and imagery. The lights were my way of capturing attention. The cover was supposed to show a literal representation of what the spacecraft would see: black sky, distant stars, and the Psyche asteroid. The words “Electromagnetic Field” are on the front to clarify what the lights represent, and by then the reader will know what the book is about. Finally, for those curious enough to continue, they have the synopsis on the back. I wanted a synopsis that explained the scientific reasons for the mission in a simple yet insightful way so adults and children could understand it. Read more…

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Reflections on Project 2: Psyche Mission Orbit B Notebook

This book is the second in a series about the four orbits the spacecraft will inhabit once it reaches Psyche. The cover features a clay interpretation of the asteroid surrounded by a ring of lights mimicking day and night. The back blurb talks about the mission of orbit B. The interior is hand sewn and finished with marbled end pages.

Psyche Mission Orbit B Notebook

Jessica Gurney

February 10th, 2025

Major: Astronomy

Genre/Medium: BookBinding

About the work:

The second book in the series is called Psyche Mission Orbit B Notebook. Orbit B is actually split into two phases: A, B1, D, C, B2. The main purpose of the orbits B is to create a map of the asteroid, and the orbits are split in two because of the position of the sunlight. I wanted to capture the 3D features from craters and rocks in some way on this book. I toyed around with different ideas but landed on using air dry clay. I also wanted to give a sense of the sun lighting up the asteroid and casting shadows. I captured this with the ring of light that brightens then darkens mimicking day and night. Very subtly I added tiny strips of silver foil along crevices, indicating the metal surface hidden under layers of rock, but this is most noticeable in person.

The book features a false spine where an Arduino nano is hidden to control the LED’s. The cover is wrapped in black linen book cloth, and the lettering is pasted on with silver foil. The interior is hand stitched, blank pages. The end sheets are handmade marbled paper with colors chosen from the Psyche logo.

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Reflections on Project 3: Psyche Mission Orbit C Notebook

Orbit C Notebook is the third in the series discussing the gravity field science. The cover features an inset cone, mimicking space time, and LED’s with an animation of direction of acceleration. The interior is hand sewn with circles cut out of the pages to allow the cone to sit flush inside and finished with marbled end pages.

Psyche Mission Orbit C Notebook

Jessica Gurney

April 3rd, 2025

Major: Astronomy

Genre/Medium: BookBinding

About the work:

Psyche Mission Orbit C Notebook is the third book in the series. Orbit C studies the gravity field around the asteroid, this book tries to capture what a gravity field does to space time with the conical inset. A gravity field bends around an area of mass drawing objects into its orbit. On the cover I added the psyche spacecraft in purple silhouette just outside the gravity field to show it hadn’t been captured yet. The LED’s represent a spherical gravity field pattern, and the animation is the light falling into the asteroid, imitating the direction of acceleration. Read more…

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Reflections on Project 4: Psyche Mission Orbit D Notebook

Psyche Mission Orbit D Notebook is the last in the series. The cover is a faux stained glass made of acrylic, and constructed with solder. The pattern represents elemental maps that assign an element a color and map it across the surface to see the element distribution. LED’s light up from behind giving a gemlike effect for the final touch.

Psyche Mission Orbit D Notebook

Jessica Gurney

Major: Astronomy

Genre/Medium: BookBinding

About the work:

The final book in the series is the Psyche Mission Orbit D Notebook. Orbit D in the mission is to study the elemental composition of the asteroid. Maps of elemental composition typically assign colors to different elements, making the map of the asteroid or planet take on this rainbow look. I wanted to somehow show the different color assignments to elements. In my mind I came up with a stained glass look using acrylic, so it would be like the three different colors of acrylic represent the distribution of three different elements.

I designed the stained glass sections, laser cut the acrylic, and used acrylic paint to color the pieces. Painting acrylic was challenging. LED’s were inset in the cover to light up the map, but when I held the acrylic to the lights the paint brush strokes were easily seen. I ended up doing a few more paint layers with a more natural dabbing motion to get a spotted effect which could then be interpreted as rocks or gems on the surface. The pieces were attached together with copper tape and solder to really bring out the stained glass look. Once I was satisfied I inset the piece in the book with UV resin.

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The Psyche badge with no words on it.

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