NASA sends a spacecraft to a gold-rich asteroid

It is said to have 10 quintillion dollars worth of rare metal reserves. NASA engineers have entered the final stage of preparing the Psyche mission. As part of it, the spacecraft will be sent to the asteroid Psyche, which is composed almost entirely of metals such as iron, nickel and gold. Psyche was assembled at the Astrotech facility near Kennedy Space Center. It is undergoing final testing before its scheduled flight on October 5. The device will be launched using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and will be directed towards the Psyche asteroid, which is about 279 kilometers in diameter. This object is flying in the asteroid belt. It will take about 4 billion kilometers to reach the destination in six years. Asteroid Psyche is called one of the largest jewels of the solar system. Scientists have recently realized how valuable it is from an economic and scientific point of view. As a result of remote observations, they concluded that the asteroid may be the remnant of a planetary core that failed during the formation of the Solar System. It consists almost entirely of metals. "If we could get it, it would be bigger than the world economy, about 10 quintillion dollars more expensive," scientists say. However, the real value of asteroid Psyche is to know what our planet's core looks like. Using seismic data on Earth, scientists are trying to determine the shape, structure and properties of the planet's core. It's like trying to reconstruct an elephant buried under rubble using only X-rays. Psyche provides a better understanding of what a planet's core looks like and how Earth was formed. In addition, the mission will serve as a testing ground for technologies that could be used for future crewed flights. The flight itself is the Falcon Heavy rocket's first interplanetary mission, laying the foundation for future Mars missions.