Featured Image Credit: Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket/24K-Production/Getty Images
NASA has revealed the date of when the $10,000 quadrillion asteroid will be brought to Earth.
It could completely change life on Earth as we know it.
It was announced by the space agency last year that it was preparing to send an orbiter to the asteroid, which has been named 16 Psyche.
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The rock contains some precious materials which include gold, iron and nickel.
In a statement, NASA said: “Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.”
And the agency stuck to its word, launching a spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in October 2023.
Since its launch, mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have dedicated the past few months to checking over the spacecraft’s system and consistently assessing whether it is still fit to travel into deep space.
The spacecraft is still on its 2.5 billion-mile journey to the asteroid, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
And now, NASA has been able to share a timeline of events.
It is set to reach the asteroid in August 2029 where it will spend the following two years orbiting it.
During this time, it’ll be measuring its gravity, magnetic properties and its composition using a collection of specially selected instruments.
In May 2026, the orbiter will receive help from Mars in getting a small gravity assist intend to boost its momentum.
This will put the spacecraft in trajectory for its final destination - with the mission planned to reach its conclusion in November 2031.
According to NASA, the asteroid measures a whopping 173 miles (280 km) across and 144 miles (232 km) long, while its surface area is 64,000 square miles (165,800 square km).
And the asteroid’s enormous size is the exact reason behind NASA’s decision to go ahead with the mission.
This is according to Nicola Fox, who is an associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate.
She explained: “Psyche is by far the largest, and that's why we want to go to it.
“Because the smaller ones are more likely to have been changed by things impacting them, whereas the big one, we think, is going to be completely unchanged.”
Not to mention the sheer value of the metals on the asteroid could make everyone on Earth filthy rich!
