NASA has officially announced that the spacecraft will launch on October 12 to observe a rare, highly metallic asteroid called Psyche – IFLScience article reviewed by 24. He.
As Clubradio previously reported, the mission was originally supposed to start a year ago, but NASA realized in the meantime that there were problems with the spacecraft’s flight software, and decided to postpone the launch. However, the mission now appears certain, because the NASA/JPL system performed well in the latest tests.
Regarding this topic, Robert Szabo, Director of the Miklós Konkoli-Thegy Institute for Astronomy of the Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, says that a lot of technological development is needed to extract the many tons of raw materials found on the asteroid.
One of the main bodies in the asteroid belt of the solar system. Psyche is a massive, mineral-rich space rock that orbits the Sun three times farther than Earth (between 378 million and 497 million km), between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered on March 17, 1852 by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.
“In one day, NASA’s Psyche mission could be launched,” he said on the morning show on Wednesday. Kiss Laszlo astronomer. The Director General of the Astronomy and Earth Sciences Research Center of the Galactic Research Network HUN-REN (formerly known as ELKH) said that according to plans, the meg probe will reach its target, the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, in 2019. August 2029. He added that at the moment We currently do not know of any other celestial body with such properties.
At least one-third, or even two-thirds, of the roughly 300-kilometre-diameter object is pure metal, suggesting that it may have once been the nucleus of a planetary germ in the early stages of the solar system. According to Case, his study will be like a trip to the heart of the Earth, Mars, or any rocky planet. Therefore it is interesting from a scientific point of view.
With the right tools, space mining can also be achieved. But even then, in addition to the technical challenges, the legal and economic background for space mining must also be prepared.
He added that Earth’s problems, such as climate change or wars, will not be solved with this project, “This is the people’s business.” The mission of scientists is to “stabilize the ship of humanity, which is currently in a tilted state, and then expand, because biology has encoded it in us.”
The problem is that getting out of Earth’s gravity is difficult, risky and expensive. According to Case’s idea, once we can establish factories in space, around the Earth or the Moon, these risks will decrease. Of course, these are very long-term plans (until 2050), which are partly uncertain due to politics, but according to him, scientific planning cannot be limited to electoral cycles.
You can listen to the entire conversation by clicking the player above.
Quick breakfast/interview with László Kiss
11/10/2023 Wednesday 7:42
Reporter: Emre Bara Kovacs
