Psyche Inspired: Caitlin Richard

Smiling person with long hair, wearing earrings, in front of a coastal cityscape with turquoise water and buildings

Institution: Arizona State University

Major: BS Biological Sciences (Conservation Biology & Ecology), BS Anthropology

Psyche Inspired Class: 2025-2026

A colorful hand-illustrated poster shows a spacecraft flying past Mars on its way to Asteroid 16 Psyche. A curved trail reading “a slingshot into space” represents a gravity assist. Mars, the spacecraft, and the asteroid are colored using the Psyche Mission palette of purples, oranges, and pinks. Subtle organic textures appear throughout the image, created by drawing against rough wooden boards.

Gravity Assist

Caitlin Richard

January 14th, 2026

Major: Biological Sciences & Anthropology

Genre/Medium: Prismacolor colored pencil on Strathmore 400 Series Drawing Paper, 18 in. x 24 in.

About the work:

Gravity Assist! is a hand-illustrated poster that draws on the artist’s background in album and show poster design, celebrating NASA’s Psyche mission during its May 2026 Mars flyby and gravity assist. This gravity assist maneuver is often referred to as a “slingshot into space.” Official Psyche Mission patch colors highlight the spacecraft, Mars, and Asteroid 16 Psyche, while a deep navy background and mustard lettering draw inspiration from 1960s sci-fi movie posters and early 20th-century Art Nouveau advertisements.

Created with Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore paper, the artist intentionally incorporated the rough wooden texture of her studio walls, resulting in both organic and angular patterns throughout the piece. These deliberate wood-grain textures provide a tactile reference to Earth and the human effort behind space exploration, paying tribute to the artisan trades, careful design, and tireless iterative process that make missions like Psyche possible.

Project Details: Caitlin Richard

A silver ring against a neutral, light background. The ring features an irregular, cratered form resembling an asteroid mounted at the top of the band. The form and band are fully polished but intentionally irregular rather than delicate. The surface is textured with small pits, scrapes, two larger depressions, and smooth highlights, evoking the appearance of a metallic planetary body.

Asteroid Ring (16 Psyche)

Caitlin RiChard

February 23rd, 2026

Major: Biological Sciences & Art

Genre/Medium: Wearable sculpture; .999 fine silver metal clay, torch-fired.

About the work:

Asteroid Ring (16 Psyche) is a wearable sculpture inspired by NASA’s Psyche mission and the eponymous asteroid it will study, believed to be composed largely of metal. This piece brings the material qualities of the distant asteroid 16 Psyche into physical proximity with the human body. The choice of a ring, an object associated with long-term commitment, mirrors the sustained dedication required by a multi-year planetary mission.

The ring was formed from .999 fine silver metal clay, shaped by hand to reference the irregular mass, voids, and surface complexity of an asteroid. After firing, the piece was refined through oxidation removal, burnishing, and hand polishing. The ring was worn by the artist for one week during daily tasks, allowing time, movement, and repeated contact to shape its surface and build a sense of attachment.

Project Details: Asteroid Ring (16 Psyche)

A loose, sketchy, geometric drawing shows specialists working around the Psyche spacecraft mounted to the launch vehicle, working with their hands or on computers, shadowy outline of the spacecraft with solar panels deployed in the background. The work is rough and unfinished, and the asteroid unformed, to show that the mission is still in progress and Psyche's true appearance is still unknown.

Seeking

Caitlin Richard

Major: BS Biological Sciences (Conservation Biology & Ecology), BS Anthropology

Genre/Medium: Sennelier Soft Pastels on BFK Rives Paper, Cream, 22″ x 30″ 280gsm, Casein Fixative

About the Work:

This piece is about the many moments before we actually reach Psyche.

The composition shows many different members of the Psyche team working across different stages of the mission. Some are hands-on with the spacecraft, others monitor or calculate from a distance. The figures themselves are quick, note-like sketches, and no single person is the focus, to demonstrate the many individuals who made the mission possible and how interconnected their roles are.

The drawing is left unfinished to draw a parallel to the mission still being in progress. The asteroid is left unformed to reflect the idea that although there are many predictions, the physical reality of Psyche is still something we do not know.

Project Details: Seeking

CAITLIN RICHARD

Major: BS Biological Sciences (Conservation Biology & Ecology), BS Anthropology

Genre/Medium: Mixed media digital collage using Adobe Photoshop and Blender (long exposure iPhone photography, 3D mockup, printer/scanner noise, digital textures).

About the Work:

This piece is an experiment in real-life observation, digital alteration, and analog editing – playing with noise and feedback while trying to connect with something far away.

It combines iPhone photography, long exposure, 3D-modeled blanket designed after the Psyche mission logo, and distortion from a process of printing and scanning.

The image is intentionally dark and grainy, shaped by low-light conditions and further altered through scanning. The scanner introduces visual noise and feedback that spreads across the composition, creating a star-like effect.

In connection to the Psyche mission, the work honors the challenges of looking toward something distant and not fully known, where meaning is formed through partial information, distortion, and translation across media. This reminds me of the work involved in transmitting and decoding all the important information gathered by, and so essential to, space exploration.

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