NASA announced that it will launch the NASA Psyche probe on October 12th. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will be responsible for the launch.
It is worth mentioning that the launch was originally scheduled to take place on October 5 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but has now been postponed to October 12.
Public information shows that the Psyche Orbiter (Psyche) is a detector used by the United States to detect the metal-rich Psyche (16 Phyche). It was approved on January 4, 2017, and is expected to finally arrive in 2029. Psyche, begins a 26-month scientific mission.
▲ Picture source; NASA
The Psyche probe’s journey through space will last nearly six years and about 3.6 billion kilometers before reaching Psyche, a planet orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe that Psyche may be part of the core of a planetesimal and may be made of iron-nickel metal.
The ores are not intended to be mined but will be studied in space to allow researchers to better understand the components of the Earth’s core.
Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit around the sun, and its closest approach to Earth is about three times the distance between Earth and Mars. “This asteroid is for scientific exploration only, not for profit,” the lead researcher said.
It is learned that he Lingshen Planet Orbiter is designed to answer the following questions:
1. Is Psyche a metallic core left behind after a differentiated celestial body was stripped away, or is it an iron-rich celestial body formed directly?
2. If Psyche is a metallic core with its outer shell stripped away, how and when does this phenomenon occur?
3. If Psyche ever melted, did it solidify from the inside out or from the outside in?
4. Does Spirit Star generate magnetoelectricity when it cools down?
5. What are the main alloys contained in the metal core?
6. What are the main characteristics of the geology and global topography of Psyche? Does Psyche look completely different from icy and stony stars?
7. What is the difference between impact craters on the surface of metallic celestial bodies and those on the surfaces of icy and stony stars?