Robotic Explorer for Hypothesized Surfaces – PROSPECT

INSTITUTION

Arizona State University (ASU)

CLASS

Platinum Class (2025 – 2026)

STUDENT TEAM

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Psyche mission seeks to explore the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, a body thought to be the exposed core of an early planetesimal, in order to improve our understanding of how planetary cores form. This capstone project addresses the difficulty of studying the Psyche asteroid by designing a rover that can reliably operate in the low gravity and perilous terrain expected. The scope of this project is limited to the rover’s mobility, navigation, and electrical power subsystems.

This work was created in partial fulfillment of the Arizona State University Capstone Course “EEE 488/9.” The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.ssl.berkeley.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.