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Psyche Inspired
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The Launch
Ash Soriano
July 2nd, 2025
Major: Media Arts & Sciences
Genre/Medium: Digital (Procreate)
About the work:
“The Launch” is a short poster comic as well as my fourth and final project for Psyche Inspired! After spending an academic year learning more about the Psyche mission, I was really inspired (if you will) by the story of how Psyche came to be, particularly the launch! I loved hearing the perspectives from the folks who were there to witness liftoff in person, and I wanted to pay homage to that experience. There has been so much talk about the potential of Psyche (both the spacecraft and the asteroid) but sometimes it is easy to forget about what humans were already able to accomplish in getting the spacecraft out there in the first place. What a feat of curiosity, intelligence, and, truly, imagination! I wanted to capture that in “The Launch” as much as I could, especially in depicting the beginning (building and preparation), middle (the launch itself), and the ongoing story (the spacecraft on its journey) of Psyche. I created this, much like my other pieces, digitally using Procreate. I opted for a dominant blue palette with some textured brushes to give it more of a “storybook” feel, almost like a nostalgic memory. I also tied in some textured brushes I used in my very first project to kind of bring it full circle as a nod to where I started at the beginning of this internship— much like this piece pays homage to the beginnings of the mission!
Psyche Inspired Overview
Psyche Inspired is a program that brings undergraduate students from any discipline or major together to share the excitement, innovation, and scientific and engineering content of NASA’s Psyche mission with the public in new ways through artistic and creative works. These works are posted in the gallery above and highlighted on X, Facebook, and Instagram. View the full resolution images in the image gallery. This year’s Psyche Inspired cohort is known as the Iridium Class.
Psyche Inspired was piloted at ASU during the 2017-2018 academic year. The following academic year, Psyche Inspired expanded nationally! The works from each Psyche Inspired cohort are collected in individual downloadable books that tell the story of Psyche through musical scores, sculptures, painting, 3-D models, photography, acrylic art, needlepoint, stop-motion films, mixed media, and more.
Click here to view all the Psyche Inspired books
Take a look at our comprehensive map that shows how the Psyche Inspired program has grown over the years!
