CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After being delayed due to bad weather Thursday, NASA hopes to launch their PSYCHE asteroid mission Friday morning.
The goal is to explore the asteroid dubbed 16-PSYCHE, which was the 16th asteroid discovered.
Mark Brown, a flight system manager with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained this mission is novel because 16-PSYCHE is a metallic-class, or M-class, asteroid. This means the asteroid has a different chemical makeup than the rocky, carbonaceous asteroids that have been studied by other missions.
“One of the leading formation theories on this asteroid is that it used to be a larger planetesimal," Brown said. That means the asteroid was likely "a small planet, but a larger planetesimal that had its mantle stripped off by a bunch of violent collisions," he continued.
Brown told WCNC Charlotte, "And if that's true, humankind has never seen a core before.”
16-PSYCHE is believed to contain iron and nickel, both of which could be representative of the Earth’s core. Scientists hypothesize it could be the core of an ancient protoplanet.
Regardless of its exact history, this asteroid is a unique, pristine body that hasn’t undergone change like planets. This allows for it to act like a snapshot in time and scientists to study planetary geology comparisons.
NASA's study of asteroids is intended to better understand how plants and life form.
Brown even believe the mission could help scientist understand how our planet is responding to climate change.
“You might not think that understanding the Earth's core has anything to do with climate change, but who am I to say that," he said. "I mean, one thing we know is that the Earth's magnetic field and spin axis has changed over its lifetime. And certainly that has a bearing on climate.”
NASA will also use this mission to test new technologies, including beaming a test, communication pattern to a sensor located at the Palomar Observatory in southern California. This sensor can count individually modulated photons, a technology that could allow for higher bandwidth communications in the future.
How long will it take for the PSYCHE spacecraft to reach the asteroid 16-PSYCHE?
Brown explains the spacecraft is going to take two, long laps around the Sun before reaching the asteroid.
“We launch. At the end of the first lap, we're out at Mars, and we're going to get a slingshot gravity assist from Mars, as many past outer planet missions have done," Brown said. "And that second lap will then end with us back at PSYCHE, which is in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.”
These two laps around the Sun take about three years each.
It’ll be approximately six years before the first photos from this metallic-class asteroid arrive back on Earth. Brown said he hopes the first photos arrive by 2029. The mission will then participate in an intense, scientific campaign lasting an additional two years.
Next launch window
The next window is 10:19 a.m. Friday, Oct. 13th. At the time of publication, the launch forecast was a 40% chance of a "GO!" for launch. If the launch is scrubbed, the next window is Saturday, Oct. 14th.
SpaceX is launching the mission on behalf of NASA from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
WCNC Charlotte will have coverage of the mission launch over on the WCNC Charlotte Weather IQ YouTube page.
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