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posted by martyb on Friday January 20 2017, @02:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the iron-is-a-precious-metal? dept.

NASA wants to uncover the mystery behind the asteroid “16 Psyche.” that may contain a priceless treasure trove of minerals. “We’ve been to all the different planets, we’ve been to other asteroids. But we’ve never visited a body that has been made of entirely metal,” said Carol Polanskey, project scientist for the Psyche mission. Now NASA, led by researchers at Arizona State University, plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to orbit 16 Psyche – an asteroid roughly the size of Massachusetts, made of iron and other precious metals. The mission’s leader estimates that the iron alone on today’s market would be worth $10,000 quadrillion.

Previously: NASA Selects Two Missions to Visit Asteroids


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @04:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @04:08AM (#456379)

    just build the colony on or beside the asteroid

    Or, even better, inside the asteroid. Kilometers of free radiation shielding, and the more you mine, the more living/manufacturing space you have.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @04:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @04:59AM (#456397)

    But zero access to Facebook not even Facebook Zero. Life without social media is not living.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @02:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @02:29PM (#456540)

      Hmm, currently 20.6 light minutes away. We'll have to route over DTN [nasa.gov], but I bet it could be done. Maybe hook up a proxy Earth-side vacuum up the AJAXy crap, transmit one blob, and have a server at 16 Psyche decompress and present the relevant URLs over TCP+HTTP locally.

      Though perhaps a simple RSS feed would work better. Perhaps bridge Freenet over DTN so it can lazy-fetch content you might want over the 41 minute round trip then freely browse from the 16 Psyche node.

      All is not lost!

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 20 2017, @03:06PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 20 2017, @03:06PM (#456555) Journal

      I really don't think Facebook is all that time sensitive. It's hardly any more time sensitive than discussions right here, on Soylent. You comment while the Aussies are asleep, few hours later, they post their comments on your comment, that Asians comment whenever they feel like it, etc, ad nauseum. The time lag would in no way affect our ability to carry on a conversation, here, or on Facefook.