NASA is flying to an asteroid with key minerals on it. They are worth 10 trillion dollars

The spacecraft was launched in mid-October from the spaceport of the Space Center. John F. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral, Florida, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The probe must cover a distance of 3.5 billion kilometers before reaching one of the larger asteroids of the main belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The agency’s spacecraft should reach its target in August 2029.

New NASA space mission. In the crosshairs is the “metal asteroid” Psyche

Psyche’s diameter is approximately 279 kilometers. Scientists estimate that the asteroid is approximately 30-60 percent it consists of metal, and according to calculations quoted by foreign media, its resources may be worth up to 10 trillion dollars (10×10^18, i.e. 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars), which is more than the entire world economy.

However, NASA is not focused on acquiring and importing minerals. Scientists say they want to study Psyche to better understand how Earth and other rocky planets formed. They argue that it is impossible to directly explore the interior of the Earth, and that the asteroid Psyche could have been a much larger object – a protoplanet – at the stage of formation of the Solar System.

Due to constant bombardment by other objects, most of the material that made up Psyche was ejected into space. Today, however, this object is the dense core of the would-be planet.

Space mission to Psyche. What will it involve?

Once the spacecraft reaches the asteroid, it will orbit it for 26 months to scan Psyche using instruments designed to measure gravity, magnetic properties and composition. The space mission does not involve landing on the surface of this celestial body. The probe is to orbit the asteroid at a distance of 64 km from its surface, and the space mission is scheduled to end in November 2031.