NASA's mission to an asteroid worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 ( $10 quintillion) is well on its way, using futuristic ion thrusters to get there by the end of the decade.

The asteroid, named 16 Psyche, is located millions of miles away from Earth in the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars, and contains a large quantity of valuable metals.

NASA launched a spacecraft—also named Psyche—to investigate the asteroid from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 13, 2023, but it won't arrive until August 2029.

What is Psyche?

Psyche is a large asteroid in the Asteroid Belt, measuring about 173 miles across at its widest point. Its distance from Earth varies between 186 million miles and over 372 million miles, depending on where both bodies are in their orbits.

Unlike most asteroids, which are primarily rocky or icy, Psyche is believed to be composed largely of metallic iron and nickel—possibly between 30 and 60 percent. This has led scientists to speculate that it might be the exposed core of an early planetesimal that lost its outer layers due to violent collisions in the early solar system, or even the remains of a different type of metal-rich cosmic body.

The value of the metal within the asteroid is thought to be worth about $10,000 quadrillion, the equivalent value of 100,000 of the world's $100 trillion GDP economy.

Exploring Psyche will give scientists a unique look at a body that may resemble the interior of our own planet, offering clues about the building blocks of planets and the early solar system's history. The mission could also pave the way for future exploration and potential mining of metal-rich asteroids, which could have significant implications for space resources and industry.

"I am excited to see the treasure trove of science Psyche will unlock as NASA's first mission to a metal world," Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a NASA statement. "By studying asteroid Psyche, we hope to better understand our universe and our place in it, especially regarding the mysterious and impossible-to-reach metal core of our own home planet, Earth."

How will we get there?

The van-sized Psyche spacecraft is well on its way toward the asteroid—as of late May this year, it was 190 million miles away from Earth, and moving at a rapid speed of 23 miles per second, or 84,000 mph. It will eventually reach speeds of up to 124,000 mph, according to NASA. The spacecraft will take a long, spiraling route to the asteroid, amounting to around 2.2 billion miles.

The craft had recently entered "full cruise" mode, meaning that it began using its electric ion thrusters to power its journey toward the asteroid. These futuristic thrusters work by throwing out charged ions of xenon, powered by sunlight, exerting a steady acceleration.

The spacecraft will slingshot past Mars in spring 2026, before its final sprint toward the asteroid. It is due to arrive in 2029, at which point it will orbit around the asteroid for about 26 months, mapping its surface, gravity and magnetic field.

"This will be the first time we've sent a mission to a body that is not mostly rock or ice, but metal," Benjamin Weiss, an MIT professor of planetary science, said in a statement after the launch. "Not only is this asteroid potentially a metal world, but asteroids are building blocks of planets. So Psyche could tell us something about how planets formed."

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