NASA nears launch of spacecraft to study $10 quintillion asteroid

NASA has announced it is only a little over 100 days away from launching a spacecraft with a mission to explore an asteroid that could be worth a staggering $10 quintillion.

The space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab disclosed on Tuesday that it successfully completed an extensive test of the flight software and has now installed it on the spacecraft. This milestone cleared a significant hurdle that had previously caused the probe to miss its initial launch date set for 2022.

Named 16 Psyche, this enormous asteroid measures 226 km in diameter and is believed to be composed of valuable materials, including gold, iron and nickel. The estimated worth of the ore present on 16 Psyche is a mind-boggling $10 quintillion. In 2020, NASA collaborated with Elon Musk's SpaceX to facilitate a journey to this metal-rich celestial body.

Under the 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, companies have a legal right to claim any materials extracted from celestial bodies. As a result, several firms have already emerged, exploring technology that could potentially facilitate mining operations in space.

However, NASA's primary mission is driven by scientific pursuits, aiming to enhance our understanding of planetary cores and the processes involved in planet formation. The spacecraft carrying this ambition will be launched in October using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Following the launch, it will embark on a six-year voyage to the Main Asteroid Belt situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Once it reaches its destination, the spacecraft will orbit 16 Psyche for 26 months, conducting extensive studies and capturing images of the asteroid to analyze its history and mineral composition.

While NASA focuses on the invaluable 16 Psyche, the agency has previously noted that the entire asteroid belt contains numerous ore-rich celestial bodies with a collective worth estimated at $700 quintillion. Surprisingly, 16 Psyche isn't the most valuable asteroid in this belt; it is surpassed by Davida, another asteroid with an estimated worth of $27 quintillion.