{"id":19115,"date":"2017-01-04T23:42:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T15:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/asteroid-fans-get-psyched-up-over-nasas-new-psyche-and-lucy-space-missions\/"},"modified":"2017-01-04T23:42:41","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T15:42:41","slug":"asteroid-fans-get-psyched-up-over-nasas-new-psyche-and-lucy-space-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/asteroid-fans-get-psyched-up-over-nasas-new-psyche-and-lucy-space-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid fans get psyched up over NASA\u2019s new Psyche and Lucy space missions"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_300510\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-300510\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-300510\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170104-lucy-psyche-630x270.jpg\" alt=\"Lucy and Psyche\" width=\"630\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170104-lucy-psyche-630x270.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170104-lucy-psyche-768x329.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170104-lucy-psyche-1240x531.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170104-lucy-psyche.jpg 1310w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-300510\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist\u2019s conceptions show the Lucy probe visiting a rocky asteroid at left, and the Psyche probe visiting a metallic asteroid at right. (NASA Illustrations)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Today is a great day for asteroid miners: NASA announced that it will provide full funding under its Discovery Program for two missions focusing on different types of asteroids.<\/p>\n<p>A mission called Lucy will launch in 2021 to study a smorgasbord of asteroids, including one in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, plus&nbsp;six others among the swarms of space rocks caught in Jupiter\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Another mission called Psyche will take off in 2022 to visit a type of asteroid that\u2019s never been seen up close before: a huge metallic object called 16 Psyche that\u2019s similar in composition to Earth\u2019s core.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what Discovery Program missions are all about&nbsp;\u2013 boldly going to places we\u2019ve never been to enable groundbreaking science,\u201d Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA Headquarters\u2019 Science Mission Directorate, said today in a news release.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NASA\u2019s New Discovery Missions\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nYdCU1QQQro?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>NASA will also provide another year of funding for the Near Earth Object Camera, or NEOCam, which is designed to look for potentially hazardous asteroids in the region of space closest to Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Discovery Program missions are relatively low-cost space science efforts, capped at a cost of about $450 million. Previously selected Discovery missions include the Messenger probe to Mercury; the Dawn probe to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres; and the InSight lander, which is due to begin its trip to Mars next year.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy, Psyche and NEOCam were among five finalists that had been under consideration for full Discovery Program funding for more than a year. Two missions to Venus&nbsp;\u2013 known as DAVINCI and VERITAS&nbsp;\u2013 lost out in this round but could be reconsidered in&nbsp;the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be wonderful if we could have selected more than two, but obviously we\u2019re delighted with the selections,\u201d said Jim Green, NASA\u2019s planetary science director.<\/p>\n<h4>Psyche: Potential target for asteroid miners<\/h4>\n<p>The Psyche mission will be going to a one-of-a-kind object in the main asteroid belt: A 130-mile-wide chunk of material thought to consist mostly of metallic iron and nickel. Scientists have suggested that the asteroid 16 Psyche could be the exposed core of a primordial Mars-sized planet that lost its outer rocky layers in a series of collisions billions of years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The mission schedule calls for launch in 2022, a&nbsp;Mars gravity-assist maneuver in 2023, and arrival at the asteroid in 2026. The robotic probe will study Psyche\u2019s composition, magnetic field and mass distribution over the course of a two-year science campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an opportunity to explore a new type of world&nbsp; \u2013 not one of rock or ice, but of metal,\u201d the mission\u2019s principal investigator, Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University, said in a statement. \u201c16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Psyche is also intriguing to asteroid miners, because insights into the composition of metal-bearing space objects could point the way toward techniques for making use of those resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the most important things we\u2019re going to discover are: What are the surface conditions of a metal asteroid like? What might the landing challenges be? \u2026 If we go there and we discover that it\u2019s easily mineable and it has mineral resources that can be converted to water, then Psyche could be the perfect stepping stone to the outer solar system,\u201d Elkins-Tanton told GeekWire.<\/p>\n<p>One of the leaders in the asteroid-mining field is Planetary Resources, a company headquartered in Redmond, Wash. Planetary Resources\u2019 president and CEO, Chris Lewicki, welcomed word of the newly selected missions in a statement emailed to GeekWire:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cPlanetary Resources is excited that NASA has selected the Lucy and Psyche missions for the Discovery program. While the particular asteroids targeted for study under these missions are not near-term resource targets, understanding the science behind their history and evolution will contribute to the body of knowledge about these important members in the solar system family and the valuable materials they contain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith some half-dozen active space missions now in service, on their way, or under development to study asteroids, we\u2019re pleased to be developing our own mission to harness water and metals from asteroids and open up the space economy enabling the permanent presence&nbsp;of&nbsp;humans beyond Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h4>Lucy: Fossils of planet formation<\/h4>\n<p>Lucy is due for launch in October 2021, and would reach its first destination in the main belt in 2025. The probe would move on to study the six Jupiter Trojan asteroids between 2027 and 2033.<\/p>\n<p>Trojans are thought to be remnants of the early solar system that were gravitationally captured at balance points in Jupiter\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese small bodies really are the fossils of planet formation, and that\u2019s why we named Lucy after the human ancestor,\u201d said the mission\u2019s principal investigator, Harold Levison of the Southwest Research Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy\u2019s target in the main asteroid belt has been named Donaldjohanson, as a nod to the paleontologist who discovered the famous 3.2 million-year-old fossil in 1974. Other targets include the Trojan asteroid Eurybates \u2013 and Levison\u2019s personal favorite, the binary Trojan known as Patroclus-Menoetius.<\/p>\n<p>Both Lucy and Psyche have the primary scientific objective of unraveling the origins and evolution of the solar system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese additional pieces of the puzzle will help us understand how the sun and its family of planets formed, changed over time, and became places where life could develop and be sustained&nbsp;\u2013 and what the future may hold,\u201d NASA\u2019s Green said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update for 3:15 p.m. PT May 24:<\/strong> This report was updated with NASA\u2019s&nbsp;decision to launch the mission in 2022 rather than 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artist\u2019s conceptions show the Lucy probe visiting a rocky asteroid at left, and the Psyche probe visiting a metallic asteroid at right. (NASA Illustrations) Today is a great day for asteroid miners: NASA announced that it will provide full funding under its Discovery Program for two missions focusing on different types of asteroids. A mission [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1519,5466,190,4788],"class_list":["post-19115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroids","tag-lucy-probe","tag-nasa","tag-psyche-probe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}