An ASU space celebration


ASU space celebration

Sometimes it's OK to get a little starry-eyed.

That was the case Monday night in Tempe at the Discovery Mission Celebration of the Psyche and Lucy missions, where scientists, support staff and guests explored Arizona State University's roles in Psyche — the first ASU-led deep-space mission — and Lucy, which will carry an instrument designed and built on campus. The mood was festive and focused on possibilities.

ASU President Michael Crow addressed the crowd of about 200 people before a panel discussion, saying that by our nature, “we are all explorers.”

“We want to know,” he said. “We want to know everything.”

The Psyche Mission will explore a metallic asteroid that may be the core of an early planet, giving us a glimpse into what may lie at the core of Earth.

“We’ve never visited a metal world, and we’ve never seen Psyche as anything other than a speck of light,” said School of Earth and Space Exploration Director Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the mission's principal investigator.

The Lucy Mission, which will investigate Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, will carry a thermal emission spectrometer designed and built at ASU. Regents' Professor Phil Christensen is the instrument's designer and principal investigator; he discussed Monday evening how the ability to build space instruments on campus allows us to pique the interest of students and the community.

See more of the sights and sound bytes in the slideshow below.

Top photo: Panel moderator Ferran Garcia-Pichel (left) asks a question of panelists Dave Williams, Jim Bell, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Phil Christensen, Henry Stone and Pete Lord at the Discovery Mission Celebration of Psyche and Lucy missions Monday in Tempe. Williams is the Psyche Mission co-investigator; Bell is the Lucy Mission co-investigator; Elkins-Tanton is the Psyche Mission principal investigator; Christensen is the Lucy Mission's thermal emissions spectrometer principal investigator; Stone is with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is the Psyche Mission Project Manager; and Lord is with Space Systems Loral and is the deputy program manager. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now 

More Science and technology

 

A gloved hand holds a test tube with liquid in it in a lab

2 ASU faculty elected as fellows to National Academy of Inventors

Arizona State University faculty members Bertram Jacobs and Klaus Lackner have been elected as fellows to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Both are being honored for research that…

The team from the Kerner Lab pose in a green field on the island of Maui.

Harvesting satellite insights for Maui County farmers

Food sovereignty can refer to having access to culturally significant foods, but Noa Kekuewa Lincoln believes it goes farther than that.“I think the concept goes beyond the foods themselves to having…

Pooyan Fazli, Adil Ahmad and Hasti Seifi work together at a table.

Google grant creates AI research paths for underserved students

Top tech companies like Google say they are eager to encourage women and members of historically underrepresented groups to consider careers in computer science research.The dawn of the era of…