NASA's Mission to 16 Psyche

  
What is An Asteroid?

Asteroids are very common and were seen many times, they are basically huge rocks that enter earth’s atmosphere with speed ranging from 30Km/s to 50Km/s, when an asteroid enters earth atmosphere it’s broken pieces are known as a meteorite.

An asteroid can also be considered as a minor planet which has a fixed orbit like earth’s but can escape its orbit due to external factors and enters into the atmosphere of other planets. There are more than 6,00,000 asteroids in our solar system and the 16 Psyche is one of the asteroid revolving in the asteroid belt which is located between Mars and Jupiter.

What’s unique about 16 Psyche?

16 Psyche is one of the most massive asteroids in the asteroid belt; this asteroid lies between planet Mars and Jupiter; but why everyone including NASA is so much interested in this asteroid.

This is because 16 psyche contains huge amounts of precious metals like Gold and Platinum according to scientists 16 psyche is a remnant core of a planet that is the reason why it is made up of almost pure heavy metals.

Configuration of 16 Psyche.

The composition of 16 psyche asteroid separates it from most other asteroid that are mainly composed of silicate minerals S type or carbonaceous compounds C type but this asteroid contains some highly valued metals on the earth which makes 16 psyche unique and because of this uniqueness this comes under the category of metallic asteroid that is M type and it is the largest among all these the diameter of this asteroid is about 225 now the most interesting part is that how much gold does this asteroid actually have and what is the worth 16 psyche contains.

Scientists have estimated 700 quanti trillions dollars worth of precious heavy metals and because of this worth NASA is very interested in this asteroid and also has plans to send a mission to 16 psyche asteroid in 2022 which is expected to arrive by 2026 and it will spend 21 months on it studying it from the orbit.

Difficulties to be Confronted by NASA

Completing this mission is not an easy task NASA’S infrastructure needs to be built for Such type of mission which includes creating refueling points on or around the moon or in the Asteroid belt and creation of orbital manufacturing facilities.

It will also be better to make foundries in the orbit or in the asteroid belt to process the mineral before they can be brought to the earth as this mission is very difficult, expensive and time consuming the cost to bring precious metals to earth from extremely distant place is very unpredictable.

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Written By - Vanshu Verma