UNITED STATES: The next NASA mission will investigate a sizable asteroid that may contain a lot of gold. The space agency has announced that it will send a mission to investigate this enormous asteroid.
The metals on Psyche 16 are projected to be worth an incredible $15,590 quadrillion, making every person on Earth a billionaire.
The enormous asteroid is known as 16 Psyche circles the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is 226 kilometers (140 miles) across and may have a core made of iron, nickel, and gold.
According to reports, the Psyche project is one of NASA’s Discovery Program’s low-cost robotic space missions.
It is intended that the mission would further our knowledge of Earth’s core because most asteroids are rocky or ice, but 16 Psyche is thought to be the exposed metallic heart of a dead planet.
The mission’s timeframe has been pushed back by three years due to software problems. It will only have flown a little over a year later than planned when it blasts out on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in October 2023, but due to celestial physics, it won’t receive a crucial gravity assist from Mars until 2026 rather than 2023.
The Psyche spacecraft will then use its three science instruments to analyze the asteroid:
A spectrometer that analyses the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the surface to disclose what the asteroid is comprised of, a magnetometer to detect the asteroid’s magnetic field, a multispectral imager to collect photographs of its surface and data about what it is made of and its geological features.
Laurie Leshin, director of JPL, said, “I’m tremendously proud of the Psyche team. They have made significant strides toward the forthcoming launch date throughout this assessment. I am confident that the strategy will succeed and am excited about the unique and important science that this mission will return.”
Also Read: NASA and ESA Plan to Bring the Rock Samples to Earth in 2033
