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Psyche Inspired: "Psyche's Souvenirs"

Multicolored laser cut, engraved, and painted acrylic

October 2023

A triptych of souvenir magnets completed for the Psyche Inspired internship through the NASA Psyche mission. They depict the major stops on the Psyche spacecraft’s journey to asteroid (16) Psyche for us on Earth to remember it by. For these, I engraved and painted the plexiglass to include finer detail than I could achieve with only laser cutting. You can learn more about the Psyche mission and Psyche Inspired at https://psyche.asu.edu/.

The Psyche spacecraft blasts off from Earth aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. The ocean and sky behind Kennedy Space Center are visible in the background as the rocket passes above the clouds and into the stars.

The Psyche spacecraft swings by Mars, using the planet’s gravity to slingshot itself farther into space. Curiosity the Mars rover waves hello as it passes by.

The Psyche spacecraft arrives at its destination, asteroid (16) Psyche, and begins its final “dance” around it. The four stages of the spacecraft’s orbit are represented by the four blue rings around (16) Psyche.

"Blast off from Earth" vector illustration.

"Swing by Mars" vector illustration.

"Dance Around Psyche" vector illustration.

Color-coded machining files. Orange and pink vectors were cut, green vectors were scored, and black fills were engraved and then painted. These files were later used to create the vector illustrations.

Test pieces. Designs were flipped, engraved on the back of clear plexiglass, and painted. This method gave the magnets a nice sense of depth, but there were too many issues with paint chipping off the smooth plexiglass surface for it to be a viable option.

Color mockup of the three.

Final sketches.

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