This artist's concept depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in ... [+] the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
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A technician prepares to integrate part of the electric propulsion system onto the main body of ... [+] NASA's Psyche spacecraft at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California.
Assembly and testing of the full robotic spacecraft begins in February 2021, and everything has to be in the clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) by April 2021.
And here's another article:
Biggest Asteroid of 2020 Flew Between Earth & Moon Undetected, Scientists Realised It 2 Days
But surprisingly, astronomers and scientists didn't realise it until 2 days later! Only on June 7, scientists made this discovery when astronomers in Hawaii first noticed the huge asteroid.
Named as asteroid 2020 LD and measuring nearly 100 metres in diameter, the asteroid travelling at a speed of 60,826 miles per hour, came even closer to the earth than the moon on June 5.
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According to a report published in the Earth Sky, this is the biggest asteroid to have come within one lunar distance of Earth this year and biggest to have gotten this close since 2011.
NASA mission to weird metal asteroid Psyche remains on track for 2022 launch | Space
A NASA mission to one of the most intriguing objects in the solar system just cleared a big hurdle on the path toward its 2022 launch.
The Psyche mission , which will explore the 140-mile-wide (225 kilometers) metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, just passed its critical design review (CDR), NASA officials announced today (July 7).
During a CDR, NASA assesses the design of every system and subsystem on a mission, from scientific instruments to communications to power and propulsion gear.
NASA Psyche Mission heading to 16 Psyche Asteroid to explore metal-rich core
No psyche job here, NASA is one step closer to mining a far-off, metal-rich distant asteroid that could be worth more than our entire global economy.
OK, technically the previously announced Psyche NASA mission is just talking about learning more about Earth's formation by exploring the metal-rock asteroid known as "16 Psyche," but if you're exploring a rock that could potentially be worth upwards of $10,000 quadrillion (per Forbes ), it's hard not to dream up bigger, sci-fi-leaning mining plans .
This may worth something:
Asteroids Hit Earth - How to Knock Asteroids Off Course
Around the world, astronomers are scanning the skies for potentially hazardous asteroids that could come barreling toward Earth in the coming years, decades, and centuries. No pressure or anything.
But it's still a risky move. Slamming into an asteroid could potentially break it apart and create a wave of debris that could then pummel our planet.
Now, researchers have proposed a wild alternative to smashing an incoming asteroid: wrangle it with a cosmic lasso.
Spacewatch: Nasa asteroid mission passes key milestone | Space | The Guardian
They must be ready by February 2021 so that assembly and testing of the full spacecraft can begin. The main body of the spacecraft, called the solar electric propulsion (SEP) chassis, is already being built at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California. The mission is due to launch in August 2026.
Its target is the asteroid Psyche, which also doubles as the name of the mission. This exotic mini-world is mostly made of iron and nickel. The composition is strikingly similar to Earth's core and raises the possibility that Psyche could be the heart of a planetary body that formed early in our solar system's history and then somehow lost its outer layers of rock. En route to the asteroid, the Psyche spacecraft will fly by Mars in 2023, arriving at its target in 2026.
Asteroid, as big as Taj Mahal, flew close to Earth but went unnoticed by scientists for two days
An asteroid 2020 LD came closer to the earth than the moon. In a bizarre series of events, the asteroid, which was nearly 100 metres in diameter, almost as big as the Taj Mahal, flew past the earth on June 5 and scientists did not take cognizance of it until two days later. According to the European Space Agency 's Near-Earth Coordination Center, the asteroid was only 0.8 LDs away from the Earth.
According to the Business Insider, 45 asteroids went undetected in 2020. However, this one was the largest of all. The asteroid, which flew by at the speed of 60,826 miles per hour, had the potential to cause massive devastation. In 2013, a 20 metre asteroid, which is a fifth of the 2020 LD, destroyed an area of 500 square kilometres. This was the Cheyabinsk meteor and it could have resulted in significantly more damage, had it exploded closer to Earth.
Biggest Asteroid of 2020 Flew Past Earth, But No One Realised for Two Whole Days
On June 5, an asteroid flew so close to Earth that at a point of time, it was nearer to the planet than the moon. However, what is surprising is the fact that it was detected two days after the celestial event actually occurred.
According to a report published in the Business Insider , this is the biggest asteroid to have come within one lunar distance of Earth this year. This asteroid is being referred to as 2020 LD. The celestial body is approximately 100 metres in diameter.
Happening on Twitter
NASA is about to begin building its latest spacecraft, called 'Psyche'—a robot to explore an asteroid worth more th… https://t.co/0ut4dkurNF Forbes (from New York, NY) Wed Jul 08 06:58:43 +0000 2020
NASA Teases 'Psyche,' A Robot To Explore An Asteroid Worth More Than Our Global Economy via @forbes https://t.co/mAE50mCjJi garethlpowell (from Bristol, England) Thu Jul 09 11:52:17 +0000 2020
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