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NASA successfully launched a probe headed for an asteroid that may be worth $10 quintillion.
The outer-world body is composed of metals such as gold, nickel, and iron.
The mission will last years and help observe what could be an ancient planetary core.
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A NASA spacecraft is en route toward an asteroid believed to be brimming with an astronomical amount of metal riches.
The space agency successfully launched a probe Friday morning, carried by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It is on a nearly six-year journey, with the “Psyche” spacecraft expected to reach the Main Asteroid Belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, in 2029.
Once there, it will orbit the asteroid for 26 months, studying and photographing the body to learn its history and mineral composition.
The 176-mile-wide asteroid, which is called 16 Psyche, has piqued interest on Earth. The celestial body is believed to be composed of high-value commodities such as platinum, gold, nickel, and iron. Altogether, estimates have valued 16 Psyche’s ore at around $10 quintillion.
To be sure, NASA’s aim in reaching the asteroid is for scientific observation, not commercial mining. Scientists have suggested the asteroid may be the exposed core of an ancient planet, or a primal mash-up of early minerals that came together at the start of the solar system, the BBC reports.
But excitement over 16 Psyche’s mineral composition also puts focus on the blossoming commercial potential of space, with asteroid mining seen as a possible source of future revenue.
Under the 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, private firms have a legal right to materials extracted from outer-world bodies, and startups have taken off as a result.
Even the Moon may be a target, as nations such as India, the US, China, and Russia, are all eyeing its potential resources, including water and rare-earth metals. Though valuations for the Moon’s commodities range widely, some have topped $1 quadrillion.
Meanwhile, other high-value asteroids exist in the Main Asteroid Belt, which collectively could be valued at $700 quintillion.
Of course, even if companies manage to mine celestial bodies successfully, a massive inflow of space-based supplies would send commodity prices on Earth plummeting.
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