JAKARTA, iNews.id – NASA has revealed more about his plans to visit the strange metal asteroid Psyche. This mission will be part of next year’s launch mission.
Scheduled to launch in August 2022, the Psyche spacecraft will travel to a strange metallic asteroid also called Psyche, which lies in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
This asteroid has been found to be composed mostly of nickel and iron. That makes it very unusual. Because most asteroids are essentially rock, the researchers wanted to understand whether Psyche could be the core of a developing planet.
“If it turns out to be part of a metallic core, it will be part of the first generation of early nuclei in our solar system,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University, principal investigator of the Psyche mission, in a statement.
Further, researchers claim, but they don’t really know, and won’t know anything for sure until they get there. “We want to ask the main question about the material that makes up planets. We are filled with questions and not many answers. This is real exploration,” he said.
To find out more about asteroids, Psyche will be armed with instruments such as a magnetometer to measure magnetic fields and a spectrometer that uses light to determine what asteroids are made of.
After launching next year, it will take several years for the spacecraft to travel 1.5 billion miles to its asteroid target. It is estimated that the Psyche spacecraft will arrive at its asteroid in late 2025, before entering orbit around it in January 2026.
The craft will begin in a safe, relatively distant orbit 435 miles from the asteroid’s surface and will move closer to the asteroid over time so the team can gather more detailed data.
“Humans have always been explorers. We always leave from where we are to find out what’s up on the hill. We always want to go further; we always wanted to imagine. It is inherent in us. We didn’t know what we were going to find, and I hope we were really surprised,” said Elkins-Tanton.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
