Mission Psyche: Cartographer’s Map
Samantha Manley
February 11th, 2026
Major: Illustration
Genre/Medium: Digital
About the Work:
Just as ancient cartographers filled the uncharted edges of their seafaring maps with drawings of sea monsters and dragons, modern designers of vehicles traveling to other planets confront a legion of hazards, both imagined and real,” (How to Land on an Alien World, Lorenz). This one line inspired the idea behind my Psyche mission video game, a game that would combine fantasy cartographers with the science behind the Psyche mission. Aiming to combine STEM concepts with games to help educate a broader audience regarding NASA’s research. The game would have you play as a member of an astro-cartography team, whose recent mission is to map their journey to Psyche as well as the surface of the asteroid itself. Along the way, the player would learn about the mission through field studies as well as collectible research note pages.
For my second project, “Mission Psyche: Cartographer’s Map,” I created a map illustrating the general flight path of the Psyche spacecraft. I wanted this project to fully embrace the quote that inspired my project as a whole. Really making the map feel like the ones old explorers would use while sailing the seas. I wanted to maintain that vintage aesthetic throughout the piece despite changing the location in which these maps were commonly used. The spacecraft’s path itself I tried to keep fairly straightforward, while still maintaining truth, such as the Mars’ gravity assist.
During the creation of this project, I researched real maps used during the times of sea exploration and, from that, chose the aspects to include in my own map design. Aspects such as the decorated borders to the banners depicting names really inspired me and were aspects I knew I wanted to incorporate into my project.
Overall, my goal for this project series is to create a game concept that delivers information regarding the Psyche information through the lens of ancient cartographers. It would deal with themes of exploration and wonder, while still delivering STEM topics in a more easily consumable way.
Download Image (761 KB)
