NASA is gearing up to send a spacecraft to study the asteroid Psyche, containing quadrillions of dollars worth of metal, to gather more knowledge about the birth of our solar system.
The spacecraft, also called Psyche, is due to launch on October 5 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to reach space before traveling the 2.2 billion miles to Psyche's Asteroid Belt location.
After its six-year journey, the spacecraft will orbit around the asteroid for at least 26 months, coming within 47 miles of Psyche's surface.
Psyche
Psyche is an asteroid located in the Asteroid Belt, orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Its distance from Earth varies between 186 million miles and 372 million miles, depending on its location in its orbit relative to ours. The asteroid is irregular in shape but measures roughly 173 miles long and 144 miles across.
This asteroid is thought to be the exposed core of a planetesimal, or an early planetary building block, having had its outer layers stripped away during the violent birth of the solar system. Scientists estimate that it may be between 30 and 60 percent metal, based on radar observations, which is unusual, as asteroids are usually mostly rock or ice.
Some estimates place the value of the metals within the asteroid at about $10,000 quadrillion, or around 100,000 times the value of the world's $100 trillion GDP economy.
Why are we going to Psyche?
Psyche is potentially, therefore, the nickel-iron core of an early planet that was never fully born, making this mission our first exploration of a world made largely of metal.
The mission is designed to investigate the origins of our solar system. NASA scientists hope to use Psyche to get a better idea about the origins of the Earth itself, using the asteroid and its planetesimal origins to reveal the secrets of the core of our planet and the other rocky planets in our solar system.
Alternatively, Psyche may turn out to be an even rarer type of primordial solar system object.
How will we get there?
While the Psyche craft is planned to launch on October 5, it has until October 25 when the ideal launch window closes. each day in between, there is a very specific time of day when the launch needs to occur, and if that is missed on any given day, the mission will be scrubbed until the day after.
After being launched using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket—marking the first in a series of NASA science missions launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket—Psyche will spend the next six years traveling towards the asteroid, using Mars as a gravity assist.
The spacecraft will slingshot around Mars in May 2026, skimming the surface by around 2,000 miles, harnessing the planet's gravity to change direction and speed without using as much fuel. It is due to arrive at the asteroid in August 2029.
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Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. ... Read more
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