SpaceX and NASA They have everything ready for one of the most ambitious missions of space agencies to begin this October 12, in the history of cosmos exploration. This Thursday the probe will take off Psychewho will do space mining on the asteroid Psyche 16.
The space probe will reach space thanks to the rocket SpaceX Falcon Heavy. The two space agencies They have spent about 117 million dollars on this projectbut this is likely to remain anecdotal, since it is possible that they find a real treasure.
The strange asteroid, which necessarily requires a visit to know exactly its components, It is located between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is located exactly in the asteroid belt.
Its brightness is so much that it does not allow the Hubble, Space Telescope able to look towards other galaxies, detail exactly all their minerals. However, as there are some estimates, scientists know some specifications about its elements.
It is because of that they carry out the mission to the rock to investigate, perhaps mine within its surface, and later return with some samples. The trip should take about six years between the round trip and the return trip.
There is no need to think badly of the NASA or SpaceX. This is not a purely commercial trip to search for precious metals.
The main objective is scientific. The formation of its metals, which we will detail later according to initial estimates, would provide information about the formation of planets.
In fact, as reported BBC World, NASA explains that its high metal content suggests that this rock is the core of a planet that failed to form. So, studying this asteroid would clear up a lot of doubts about the birth of worlds.
Psyche 16: a mine of precious metals
But although it has many scientific implications, at the POT He is struck by the amount of metals that the asteroid may have in its composition. According to what the same cited media reports They call it the “golden” asteroid because of the high amount of gold it has.
“We have seen other meteorites that are mostly metallic, but what makes Psyche unique is that it may be made entirely of iron and nickel,” says Tracy Becker, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, United States.
But in addition to these two metals, the rock could be full of gold and platinum. In this way, if the previous estimates about the asteroid are true, its metals would have a value that exceeds 10 thousand quadrillion dollars.