If we ever decide to mine Psyche for resources, it will be worth an astonishing $10 quintillion, according to experts.
An exciting mission that could shed light on the earliest days of the solar system and how planets are formed is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Heavy Falcon rocket as soon as this August.
Ahead of the launch, the media was invited to get a first hand look at the spacecraft's development inside a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California.
Linda Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University is the principal investigator of the mission.
She said it could be the part of a metal core of a tiny planet from early in the Solar System, or it could be something that never melted and formed a core but has metal mixed into it.
A variety of scientific instruments will be used to figure out what the space rock is made of and what its surface looks like.
Psyche will use Hall thrusters for the first time in deep space.
Even in the dim environment of the solar system's main asteroid belt, there will be plenty of power provided by two solar panel array covering 800 square feet.
If everything goes according to plan, the spaceship will slingshot around Mars in May of 2023, and begin its journey to the asteroid in three years. The asteroid will have a detailed look at its surface and makeup over the next 21 months.
The scientists are excited about what the small craft may find.
I would love for it to be reduced in size so that the metal is made up of iron that is left behind.
Ars takes a clean-room tour of JPL's asteroid-orbiting Psyche spacecraft.
NASA hires the company to launch a mission to a giant metal asteroid.
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