NASA is launching a new 6-year mission today to explore the Psyche asteroid that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter in the solar system's main asteroid belt.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Psyche mission, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study it's composition.
The Psyche mission will arrive at the metallic asteroid — also known as M-type, and it’s the largest in the solar system — in 2029 and study it in orbit for about two years. "Psyche is something of the poster child of the M-type asteroids," Dr. Zoe Landsman, science adviser to the Exolith Laboratory at the University of Central Florida,."Of a group of weird and mysterious asteroids, it is the biggest, weirdest, and most mysterious."
Of course, asteroid mining is still an object of science fiction, but some futurists and even some companies hope that will eventually change. And metallic asteroids like Psyche are on their mind.
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