NASA’s Psyche mission to explore metal asteroid worth $10 quintillion
- 7 years ago
TEMPE, ARIZONA — NASA said it would be launching the Psyche mission one year earlier than planned. The mission will explore the metal asteroid called 16 Psyche.
The Psyche mission is part of NASA’s Discovery program, which will explore the 16 Psyche asteroid located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The mission was set to launch in 2023 but has been moved up to the summer of 2022. The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in 2026.
“We challenged the mission design team to explore if an earlier launch date could provide a more efficient trajectory to the asteroid Psyche, and they came through in a big way,” Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington said in a press release. “This will enable us to fulfill our science objectives sooner and at a reduced cost.
The new trajectory is said to be more efficient as it eliminates the need for an Earth gravity assist, and stays farther from the sun, hence shortening the original timeline by four years.
The 16 Psyche is primarily made of iron and nickel. The iron reverse on the asteroid is said to be worth around $10 quintillion, which is more than even the combined GDP of every country on Earth, which totalled about $74 trillion in 2015.
The objectives of the mission include determining whether the asteroid is a core, or it if is unmelted material; the relative ages of regions of the asteroid surface; and to characterize its topography.
The mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation.
The Psyche mission is part of NASA’s Discovery program, which will explore the 16 Psyche asteroid located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The mission was set to launch in 2023 but has been moved up to the summer of 2022. The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in 2026.
“We challenged the mission design team to explore if an earlier launch date could provide a more efficient trajectory to the asteroid Psyche, and they came through in a big way,” Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington said in a press release. “This will enable us to fulfill our science objectives sooner and at a reduced cost.
The new trajectory is said to be more efficient as it eliminates the need for an Earth gravity assist, and stays farther from the sun, hence shortening the original timeline by four years.
The 16 Psyche is primarily made of iron and nickel. The iron reverse on the asteroid is said to be worth around $10 quintillion, which is more than even the combined GDP of every country on Earth, which totalled about $74 trillion in 2015.
The objectives of the mission include determining whether the asteroid is a core, or it if is unmelted material; the relative ages of regions of the asteroid surface; and to characterize its topography.
The mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation.