NASA Psyche mission to explore an asteroid housing precious metals in 2022

NASA's official website has listed a mission by name 'Psyche' which is gearing up for a launch in 2022. exciting mission by NASA aims at exploring Asteroid Psyche which is believed by scientists to house precious metals worth quadrillions. NASA has deemed asteroid Psyche to be one of most intriguing targets in main asteroid belt.

While asteroids are most commonly kwn to be made up of rocky or icy bodies, scientists are affirmative that Psyche is built entirely out of iron and nickel. unique metal asteroid has been spotted orbiting sun between Mars and Jupiter and NASA plans on arriving at asteroid's orbit in 2026. 

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NASA's Psyche mission

official website of NASA has informatively listed down mission objectives and its course in order to explain its reason behind exploring unique asteroid. As scientists cant measure or see Earth's core directly, Psyche can give an opportunity for researchers to have a better understanding of 'violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets'. Read below to kw goals and objectives of mission - 

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Goals of mission

• Understand a previously unexplored building block of planet formation: iron cores.
• Look inside terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly examining interior of a differentiated body, which orwise could t be seen.
• Explore a new type of world. For first time, examine a world made t of rock and ice, but metal.

Objectives of mission

• Determine wher Psyche is a core, or if it is unmelted material.
• Determine relative s of regions of Psyche's surface.
• Determine wher small metal bodies incorporate same light elements as are expected in Earth's high-pressure core.
• Determine wher Psyche was formed under conditions more oxidizing or more reducing than Earth's core.
• Characterize Psyche's topography.

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Im courtesy - NASA official website

In 2022, Psyche craft is expected to launch from Kenndy Center in Florida, USA. Psyche craft will n flyby Mars in 2023. craft will have a electric cruise of 3.5 years before entering Psyche's asteroid orbit in 2026. It will n spend 2026-2027 orbiting asteroid. 

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