The Moon, Europa

The Moon, Europa

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Psyche

Yesterday, after reviewing 27 submissions, NASA chose to fund five projects for initial mission investigation. The five projects will receive 3 million dollars to conduct concept design and analysis studies. Sometime in September 2016 NASA will choose one or two of the projects for mission funding.

My personal favorite is the Psyche project.
     Psyche is an asteroid that appears to be solid metal, a property making it very different from the usual drifting space rock. In addition to possibly being a very large magnet, and depending on the level of magnetism could wreak havoc on a vehicle's equipment, Psyche may be a potentially useful resource both for knowledge of the way planetary cores cool and what asteroids could provide commercially. Here is the summary story on Gizmodo, or if you want to geek-out a little the summary from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.