HOW FAR WILL THE PSYCHE SPACECRAFT TRAVEL?
The spacecraft arrives at the asteroid, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, in early January of 2026.
From launch in late summer 2022 to arrival at the first science orbit around the asteroid in January 2026, the spacecraft will travel 1,496,883,202 (~1.5 billion) miles or 2,409,000,000 (~2.4 billion) kilometers! From launch to the end of the primary mission (October 31, 2027) it will travel 2,038,718,881 (~2 billion) miles or 3,281,000,000 (~3.3 billion) kilometers!
Psyche will use an estimated 922 kilograms (7,022.46 moles) of xenon to travel 2.409 billion kilometers to Psyche. That’s 1.76 x 1018 atoms of xenon per kilometer. Or 1.76 x 1012 atoms per millimeter traveled.