from the what-do-you-mean-I-can't-just-pip-install-pyPsyche? dept.
Psyche, the 'Goldmine Asteroid,' Mapped in Greatest Detail Yet
16 Psyche is considered a dwarf planet, roughly 140 miles in diameter:
Scientists have devised one of the most detailed maps yet of the asteroid, "Psyche," ahead of a mission to investigate the chunk of rock later this year.
The map, released in the paper "The Heterogeneous Surface of Asteroid (16) Psyche" in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, was constructed with an array of advanced telescopes in northern Chile that constructed the asteroid's surface.
"Psyche's surface is very heterogeneous," said the study's lead author, Saverio Cambioni, of MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). "It's an evolved surface, and these maps confirm that metal-rich asteroids are interesting enigmatic worlds. It's another reason to look forward to the Psyche mission going to the asteroid."
NASA's Psyche Mission to an Unexplored Metal World Comes to a Halt
NASA's Psyche mission to an unexplored metal world comes to a halt:
NASA's first spacecraft designed to study a metallic asteroid won't be launching this year as planned, according to an announcement made by the agency on Friday.
The Psyche mission's 2022 launch window, which opened on August 1 and closes on October 11, will come to an end before the spacecraft's flight software is ready. A delay in delivering the software and its testing equipment has prevented the Psyche team from having enough time for testing prior to launch.
Engineers want to be absolutely sure that the software will function as expected once the spacecraft is in flight.
[...] "Flying to a distant metal-rich asteroid, using Mars for a gravity assist on the way there, takes incredible precision. We must get it right. Hundreds of people have put remarkable effort into Psyche during this pandemic, and the work will continue as the complex flight software is thoroughly tested and assessed," said JPL Director Laurie Leshin. "The decision to delay the launch wasn't easy, but it is the right one."
NASA Asteroid Mission on Hold Due to Late Software Delivery
NASA asteroid mission on hold due to late software delivery:
The Psyche mission to a strange metal asteroid of the same name was supposed to launch this September or October. But the agency's Jet Propulsion Lab was several months late delivering its software for navigation, guidance and control—a crucial part of any spacecraft. Engineers "just ran out of time" to test it, officials said Friday.
[...] Now that the software has been delivered, there's no known problems with the spacecraft except "we just haven't been able to test it," said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the Psyche mission lead scientist.
There are still at least two launch opportunities next year and more in 2024 to get to the asteroid that sits in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, said JPL Director Laurie Leshin. That means Psyche wouldn't arrive at its asteroid until 2029 or 2030.
Journal Reference:
Saverio Cambioni, Katherine de Kleer, and Michael Shepard, The Heterogeneous Surface of Asteroid (16) Psyche [open], JGR Planets, 2022. DOI: 10.1029/2021JE007091
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @12:35AM (12 children)
Why not just dig a little deeper into the earth and see what's there? We haven't even reached ten miles yet
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @12:54AM (1 child)
Because we do not want to disturb the Ancient Ones.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @01:00AM
But Biden's nap time is over.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 27 2022, @03:14AM (4 children)
Because it's really hard. Even compared to space travel.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @05:49AM (3 children)
I don't believe that. For less than the price of Twitter I bet we could beak into the upper mantle. And all that heat will provide plenty of free energy to run the machinery.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday June 27 2022, @11:15AM
It really is really hard, but there are some interested advancements happening with "fusion lances" to replace regular drills for the deeper parts. No, it's not fusion per se, but using tech from fusion ignition experiments. Look for "gyrotron" if you want to read up on it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 27 2022, @01:39PM (1 child)
For that price, we could do a lot of stuff in space. $44 billion would probably be a reasonable price tag for a small, private enterprise colony on Mars or the Moon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @08:20PM
You are so.. 19th century! Oh well, be sure to write
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mhajicek on Monday June 27 2022, @05:40AM (2 children)
Doing so destroys natural habitat and creates pollution. There's also a lot of stuff we don't want in the way, whereas on Psyche it appears there's rich ore and even unoxidized metal right at the surface in large quantities.
Plus, if you're going to make spaceships and space habitats out of it, there are significant advantages to using material that's already in space.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 5, Insightful) by driverless on Monday June 27 2022, @06:47AM
Problem is do we want China to be the ones to do it? Because if it's left to NASA it'll get proposed, cancelled, funded, cancelled, redone, cancelled, built, cancelled, funded again, cancelled, modified, cancelled, updated, cancelled, and will finally end up as a robot orbiter around Deimos which will occasionally catch glimpses of the Chinese shuttles going to and from Psyche.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @06:54AM
OP may have been thinking of exploration, not mining. A similar argument could be made about the ocean floor.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday June 27 2022, @08:08AM (1 child)
Because of the serious consequences [wikipedia.org] of digging too deep.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 27 2022, @01:50PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @01:18AM
Many more people will die before seeing the close up rock photos.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday June 27 2022, @02:45AM (1 child)
If one doesn't have the resources to do it right, not much sense to do it at all.
All you get is Half-baked crap.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 27 2022, @01:44PM
>Engineers want to be absolutely sure that the software will function as expected once the spacecraft is in flight.
They need to take a lesson from Cap'n Ron: "If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there, so let's go!"
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27 2022, @04:39PM
We're going to an asteroid to look for gold!
Psyche!
Just kidding