M
Mike Wehner
Guest
- NASA's next asteroid mission will attempt to visit the space rock called 16 Psyche.
- The mission will, of course, include a spacecraft that will travel to the asteroid over the course of several years, eventually arriving in early 2026.
- The spacecraft, which is slated to launch in mid-2020, is now officially in its assembly phase, with NASA engineers piecing together and testing the various components that will be used during the mission.
If it seems like studying asteroids is all the rage these days that's because, well, it sort of is. After exploring the Moon and studying samples of its surface — and taking the steps to prepare for eventually studying the surface of Mars using samples sent back from the Red Planet — the next logical step in studying the material that makes up our solar system is to run down asteroids and snatch some samples from them as well. In the past few years, multiple asteroid missions have gathered samples successfully, but NASA's next asteroid mission won't attempt sample collection at all.
The Psyche mission, which seeks to visit and study the asteroid known as 16 Psyche, will spend several years traveling through space before entering orbit around the asteroid. Now, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the spacecraft that will make that journey is finally ready to be built.
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NASA’s Psyche mission hits its stride as construction begins originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 4 Feb 2021 at 00:50:15 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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