Mission started. The probe will reach its target in 2029
6:24 AM EDT, October 14, 2023
The Psyche mission began on Friday, October 13, at 10:19 AM Eastern Time. The probe was launched by Elon Musk's rocket, SpaceX Falcon Heavy, at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The plan from NASA was supposed to have the rocket launch on Wednesday, October 11th. However, the agency had to make the decision to change the mission start date by 24 hours due to unfavorable weather. As we saw on the official live broadcast reported by NASA, the Psyche mission launched without any obstacles this time.
The distance to asteroid 16 Psyche is as much as 2.17 billion miles. This is the vast distance that a NASA probe will have to traverse. The plan assumes that the journey to the destination between Mars and Jupiter will take just under six years.
Contact with the asteroid 16 Psyche is scheduled for 2029 and it doesn't mean that the probe will immediately return to Earth afterward. NASA scientists report that the unit will spend the next 26 months in Psyche's orbit to collect enough images and other data necessary for further research.
The probe is equipped with over 2204.62 pounds of xenon, which will be used to propel the object on its way to the asteroid belt. The mission will also test a new technology, Deep Space Optical Communications, whose task is to enable high-speed laser communication data transfer. NASA plans to use this technology on a larger scale in the future.
An important subject of study worth trillions of dollars
16 Psyche is an important object for scientists to study, which will answer many questions about the planet formation process. Scholars also note that the composition of the asteroid, towards which the SpaceX rocket carried NASA's probe, resembles Earth's core. However, Psyche differs in that it is not as heated an object compared to the interior of the Earth's sphere..
NASA has determined that Psyche is built from a mixture of metals and pyroxene (with a predominance of iron and nickel) and visually resembles a rock that is the result of volcanic ejection - it's an irregular mass. Furthermore, this cosmic object is considered a valuable source of raw materials. Journalist from benchmark.pl, Karol Żebruń, explained that although Psyche is predominantly made up of nickel and iron, Psyche is also constructed from a range of rare earth metals. "As we know, these are a crucial resource for the electronics industry," Żebruń notes.
Estimates regarding the value of 16 Psyche are divergent, resulting from the method of calculation. The asteroid's resources could be worth up to 10 trillion dollars if the value is calculated directly from the object's mass (approximately 26 quintillion pounds). However, it should be noted that such an amount would require transporting the entire asteroid to Earth, which is impossible.
