NASA wants to get an asteroid that is worth $10 quintillion dollars. That’s ten billion dollars.
It’s been months since NASA made a big news that shocked everyone. Since then, the choice has caused excitement and debate about a treasure chest in space that is far away. The project is all about the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is a space rock full of things that could be very valuable.
NASA says that 16 Psyche has a unique makeup and that it may be full of valuable metals like gold, iron, and nickel.1 This rock is thought to be worth an amazing $10 quintillion. People are very excited and guessing about what the finding might mean since it was made public.
A news release from NASA said, “Almost around the clock, teams of engineers and technicians are making sure the orbiter is ready to go 2.5 billion miles to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.” It would be an insult to say that the 16 Psyche mission has been carefully planned.
It all began with a safe launch on October 13, 2016, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was the start of a trip that will take people to the farthest spots in our solar system. The spaceship has been heading straight for the asteroid since it was launched, ready to find out what it holds.
What the Asteroid Is
The completely crazy value of 16 Psyche has led people to dream of unimaginable wealth and happiness, but experts have warned people not to give in to their economic delusions. It is very dangerous to think that if the asteroid is mined, everyone on Earth would become a billionaire suddenly.
It was said that “if NASA were to successfully mine the asteroid and bring it back to earth, everyone on the planet would essentially become a billionaire.” This showed how such an accomplishment could affect the economy.2 But we all know that if something like that happened, the economy would probably crash, which would throw the whole world into chaos.
NASA has always made it clear that the mission’s main goal is science exploration. “It’s a good thing NASA has said that mining 16 Psyche is not their plan.” The agency’s main goal has always been to learn more about how planets form and how the universe has changed over time, even if their discoveries could make them money.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who is in charge of the Psyche project, said that the $10 quintillion estimate is more of a thought experiment than a real-world figure.3. She then talked more about how hard it is to get such astronomical wealth and how the value of the rock is impossible to understand in real life.
Not Just the Money
The trip to 16 Psyche is a first in space exploration; it tests the limits of what people can think of and what technology can do. Nicola Fox, who is the associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, said, “Psyche 16 is by far the largest. That’s why we want to go there—the smaller ones are more likely to have been changed by things that hit them, but we think the big one will be completely unchanged.”
NASA plans to do a full study of 16 Psyche when they get there using high-tech tools such as a radio device, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, and a multispectral imager. The goal is to figure out what the asteroid is made of and learn more about its geological past and cosmic importance.
NASA’s journey to 16 Psyche is more than just a way to get rich (though it is a huge amount of money), and it gives us a look into how complicated our universe is. The asteroid is more than just a jackpot; it’s also a beacon of scientific research and growth that promises to help us learn more about how planets form and where we live in the universe.
