Psyche: NASA looking to investigate a metallic asteroid

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(Edited)

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Img source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Psyche is a NASA mission to investigate the asteroid 16 Psyche. It is suspected that the object will be rich in metal and hopefully reveal information about the formation of the early Solar System.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: One Month From Launch: Psyche Mission to a Metal Asteroid (Live Briefing)

National Academy of Sciences: The NASA Psyche Mission: An Electric Journey to a Metal World

The orbiter will launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket out of Florida. The center core will be expended. The two boosters will return to landing pads at Cape Canaveral.

The orbiter will travel five years and 10 months to the asteroid, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The science mission will last 21 months in orbit around 16 Psyche.

Hall-Effect thrusters power the orbiter. These convert solar energy into charged xenon ions which will create thrust.

A secondary payload is an optical laser transmission system, which will test higher data rate transmissions beyond the Moon down to Earth.

Live Stream:

Official Psyche mission website: science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche

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space rocket spacex nasa psyche elonmusk technology satellite flaconheavy stem
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This looks extra cool! Until we figure out a way to mine with robots and also have a non-chemical way to get around in space this is mostly just space prospecting with limited means of extraction. Still, its fucking cool!

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I suppose we will see these methods honed on the Moon. If it works there, it might work on asteroids too.
Unfortunately all of this really depends on Elon getting Starship to work. If this fails, we won't be on the moon with people before 2035-40. Maybe the Chinese will make it earlier than that. They seem to be pushing hard.

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I would love to see the moon as a base of operations for these efforts. Have the refinement there with feedstock coming from the belt. Then its a short hop to Earth, Mars or even Venus when we build that station in the clouds.

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