In less than 80 days NASA and SpaceX will launch a solar-powered spacecraft on a 2.5 billion miles (four billion kilometers) journey to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to reveal the truth about an asteroid called 16 Psyche.
Its unusual composition of iron and nickel has led to speculation that 16 Psyche could be worth about $10,000 quadrillion. Perhaps more importantly, it will give planetary scientists a chance to study an iron core like the one located in the center of the Earth—and uncover a new kind of metal world in the solar system.
NASA Update
In an update from NASA posted online the space agency today said that a team of 30 engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to get the spacecraft—also called Psyche—ready.
Psyche is scheduled launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:38 a.m. EDT (7:38 a.m. PDT) on Thursday, October 5, 2023. The launch window stretches to Wednesday, October 25, 2023.
Typically used to launch heavy satellites, Psyche will be the Falcon Heavy’s first interplanetary launch.
Countdown to Launch
“The team and I are now counting down the days to launch,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The team is conducting numerous training activities to ensure that we are prepared and ready. It’s a very busy time, but everyone is very excited and looking forward to the launch.”
With the science instruments, spacecraft hardware and software all checked and ready, next comes the attaching of Psyche’s enormous solar panels. In mid-August all 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of xenon propellant will be fed into the spacecraft.
Once at its target the NASA spacecraft will spend 26 months in orbit mapping and studying the asteroid’s properties.
Failed Planet
16 Psyche is a rare metal asteroid possibly comprised of iron, nickel and gold, but that’s based only on observations of its brightness made by telescopes.
Around 173 miles (279 kilometers) wide, it’s thought to be the core of a failed planet, which makes it of great interest to planetary astronomers. It’s one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt. Earth has a metal core, a mantle and crust. Metal asteroids are considered the probable source of iron meteorites found on Earth.
“For many years, M-type asteroids were thought to be the cores of planetesimals, or small planets, stripped of their silicates and organic mantles by collisions in the early solar system,” said Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, a planetary scientist with University of Central Florida’s Florida Space Institute, who is using the new Two-meter Twin Telescope (TTT) in the Canary Islands, Spain, to study metal-rich M-type asteroids. “A more recent theory, based on detailed studies of the largest M-type asteroid, 16 Psyche, argues that these bodies formed much closer to the sun, were stripped of their thin crusts while still partially molten, and later dynamically moved to their current location.”
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Read the full article here
