Khanna reported in mid-2020 that:
- This NASA mission will be to 226-kilometre wide asteroid dubbed ‘16 Psyche’. The spacecraft has cleared the ‘critical design’ phase last month.
- The asteroid could contain mineral resources be worth more than our entire global economy [assuming the economic laws of supply and demand do not apply at the time of mining the asteroid and marketing the products on Earth].
- Geoscientists suggest that the gold and other precious metals on the asteroid to be worth $10,000 quadrillion[at current prices .... assuming the economic laws of supply and demand do not apply in the future].
NASA is soon going to commence building its latest spacecraft called Psyche. The NASA mission will be to 226-kilometre wide asteroid called ‘16 Psyche’. The asteroid is located in the solar system’s asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid is thought by geoscientists to be built entirely of high concentrations of exposed metallic iron, nickel and gold core of a protoplanet. Most asteroids are assumed to be icy and rocky and nothing like 16 Psyche. If that asteroid is mined and brought to Earth for sale, the stream of mined material transported to Earth might be worth more than the entire Earth's economic system, which would have a major impact requiring a major adjustment in the world economic resource supply system See (more) on this subject.
SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket
NASA is working with SpaceX on this to launch Psyche from Cape Canaveral Launch Pad 39A, with the help of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, somewhere around August 2022. The rocket is expected to cross Mars in the year 2023 and will move towards the trajectory of the asteroid by January 2026 -- so it’s a long journey.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for the Psyche mission said in a statement, “It’s one of the most intense reviews a mission goes through in its entire life cycle. And we passed with flying colors. The challenges are not over, and we’re not at the finish line, but we’re running strong.”
NASA is now in the process of making three instruments -- a magnetometer to measure the magnetic field of the asteroid, a multispectral imager to capture surface images, and spectrometers that look at neurons and gamma rays coming from the surface to learn more about its composition. The assembly and testing are expected to commence in February next year and the equipment will be in the cleanroom of JPL by April of 2021.
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