A planetary geologist at the University of Iowa is closely following one of the latest NASA missions, the recent launch of a spacecraft called Psyche.
Valerie Payré, a UI professor of earth and environmental science, says the orbiter is headed for a distant asteroid, also called Psyche, which is floating between Mars and Jupiter.
“The Psyche mission is actually not landing on the asteroid,” Payré says. “It’s a spacecraft that will be orbiting around it and it will analyze the chemical composition of the surface, looking at rocks, minerals, what the surface is made of.” Research indicates the far-away rock is composed mostly of metals. Copper, cobalt and platinum are in high demand to build everything from cars and computers to cellphones and TVs.
Sending robotic mining machines to an asteroid is likely decades away, she says, but that’s the eventual goal. “There are a few companies working on this,” Payré says. “The first step is exploring, looking at the surface of these asteroids, finding the perfect metal deposit where they could extract those metals, so the first step is quite long and really important.” It’s very long, in fact, as the spacecraft Psyche won’t even reach its namesake asteroid until 2029.
Scientists are theorizing whether it’s possible to attach a rocket to an asteroid and propel it back to Earth, as that would make for a much shorter commute.
“There are some companies thinking about that, to kind of like attract the asteroids into the Earth orbit,” Payré says, “because that would be easier maybe to extract the metals from a terrestrial orbit and not several hundred millions of miles away from Earth.”
Many asteroids are billions of years old, she says, and can vary in size from as big as a grocery store to the size of the state of Iowa. While it might be more convenient to mine an asteroid from Earth orbit, or at least nearby, Payré suggests that could open up another whole can of killer worms. Ever see the movie, “Armageddon”?
“I’m not sure we want to have a Moon-size asteroid orbiting around us right now,” Payré says. “That could be very dangerous for the Earth, but if it’s a small asteroid, that could be the option.”
It’s thought the asteroid Psyche may be part of a former planet’s core, similar to Earth’s core, and she says this mission promises to begin unlocking some of the mysteries about valuable core minerals and metals.