Mission Psyche: Character Designs
Samantha Manley
January 7th, 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 for my Psyche mission video game, which would combine fantasy cartographers with the science behind the Psyche mission. Aiming to integrate 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 the player would learn about the mission through field studies as well as collectible research note pages. Read more…
