NASA launched a new 6-year mission Friday morning to explore the Psyche asteroid that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter in the solar system’s main asteroid belt.
The Psyche mission — named after the asteroid it aims to reach — had a successful takeoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Fla.
The asteroid is drawing intense interest among many scientists. According to Space.com: "Scientists think the asteroid could be an exposed metallic core of an ancient protoplanet. If the metals on Psyche were on Earth, they would be worth more than the entire world economy."
The Psyche mission will arrive at the metallic asteroid — also known as M-type, and it’s the largest in the solar system — in 2029 and study it in orbit for about two years.
"Psyche is something of the poster child of the M-type asteroids," Dr. Zoe Landsman, science adviser to the Exolith Laboratory at the University of Central Florida, told CNN. "Of a group of weird and mysterious asteroids, it is the biggest, weirdest, and most mysterious."
Of course, asteroid mining is still an object of science fiction, but some futurists and even some companies hope that will eventually change. And metallic asteroids like Psyche are on their mind.