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NASA Asteroid Mission -- Metals "Worth" Ten Thousand Quadrillion Dollars

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

randomerr writes:

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: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 20 2017, @05:12PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 20 2017, @05:12PM (#456609) Journal

    then exploit them decades later when it becomes feasible to do so.

    If you put an asteroid into an orbit that can be reached, and it has a lot of valuable treasure on it, then there suddenly becomes an incentive to MAKE it feasible to harvest.

    Even if all that metal cannot be landed on Earth, it could be used for space stations and spacecraft. Again, the value of the materials, already in space, and somewhat accessible, will accelerate the development of technologies to exploit it.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @11:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @11:19PM (#456768)

    SHINY SHINY SHINY

    Can haz metlz cheep?