It is known that there are vast resources to be mined in space. The resources that could be harnessed could supply our demands. NASA plans to mine asteroid that could supply us with minerals worth quadrillions. One of the potential asteroid is Psyche. The asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter is thought to be rich in metals. It was first identified by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and named Psyche after the Greek word for soul in March 1852.
Earlier this week, NASA funded a robotic mission to Psyche. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2023. This will be the first mission to visit a metallic asteroid, an extremely rare object in our solar system. Previous missions from NASA visited icy planets and rocky worlds such as the Vesta and Ceres. It was thought that Psyche could have grown into Mars-like mass but its rocky outer layers have been stripped away by collisions some billions of years ago. The core that remains is thought to be made out of nickel and iron and is about the size of Massachusetts.
The psyche mission led by scientists from Arizona State University will launch in 2023 and will reach the asteroid by 2030. The spacecraft will collect data about Psyche's topography and composition. The robotic mission will also send GIF-able images of the asteroid. By studying Psyche, researchers hope to be able to better understatnd our own iron core and how planets form. Psyche is the only round metal body in our solar system. According to some scientists, the price tag of the Psyche asteroid could be $10,000 quadrillion as reported SF Gate.
Other missions from NASA will include the Lucy mission which will be exploring the Trojan asteroids. The Lucy mission will be launched in 2021. This week NASA also announced that it would fund the Near Earth Object Camera project for another year which will launch an infrared telescope to track potentially dangerous asteroids near Earth in 2021.
Although the prospect of asteroid mining seems farfetched today NASA plans to mine asteroid and some companies are already looking into the development of technology that would one day allow us to mine asteroids. One such company is Planetary Resources. The potential for asteroid mining is very big and although it is still in its infancy, some companies and governments are looking into this possibility as reported in an article by The Atlantic.
