NASA launched a mission to capture the asteroid last year
The asteroid valued at a staggering $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 that NASA is currently working to capture appears to be rusting.
Last year, NASA announced its mission to explore the valuable asteroid, named 16 Psyche.
Believed to contain precious metals such as gold, iron, and nickel, NASA is eager to study and potentially retrieve resources from the asteroid.
In a statement released in July 2023, the space agency said, “Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.”
The mission officially kicked off in October 2023, with the spacecraft launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Traveling at an astonishing speed of approximately 84,000 mph through space, the spacecraft is expected to reach the valuable asteroid in August 2029.
In 2017, before the mission officially began, experts discovered traces of water on Psyche’s surface. Although the findings were inconclusive, they suggest that Psyche’s surface may contain small amounts of water, either as ice or as hydrated metals, which could lead to rust.
These findings were a significant factor in driving NASA and scientists to move forward with the Psyche project.
There’s little doubt that one of the main reasons the NASA mission has garnered so much attention is due to the immense value of the asteroid.
So, why is 16 Psyche worth a staggering $10,000,000,000,000,000,000?
Experts believe its value lies in its composition, which includes elements like platinum and palladium.
These precious metals are essential for industries like automotive manufacturing and electronics.
If NASA and its partners can successfully mine these resources, they’ll have a tremendously valuable asset on their hands.
While it may be a few years before this becomes a reality, plans are already in motion for that eventuality.
Several companies are exploring the possibility of establishing mines on Psyche, though many acknowledge that current technology still needs significant advancements to make this a reality.
Philip Metzger, a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida, told Live Science, “The technologies need to be advanced […] before we’re ready to start building a flight mission. What’s lacking right now is funding.”
He further explained that if funding were secured quickly, a small-scale mining operation could become feasible.