NASA’s is currently on an ambitious mission to study the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, valued at an estimated $10 quintillion ($10,000,000,000,000,000,000) due to its vast reserves of gold, nickel, and iron.
In October 2013, NASA launched a spacecraft to towards the asteroid. The spacecraft still continues its 2.2-billion-mile journey.
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The asteroid, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is believed to be the exposed core of a protoplanet, offering clues to planetary formation.
However, experts and social media users warn that any attempt to mine or bring its resources to Earth could trigger catastrophic economic and environmental consequences.
The Psyche spacecraft, traveling at speeds up to 124,000 mph, is set to reach the 140-mile-wide asteroid in July 2029, where it will orbit for 26 months to map its surface and study its composition, estimated to be 30-60% metal.
NASA emphasizes that the mission is purely scientific, aimed at understanding planetary cores, with no plans to harvest the asteroid’s resources.
“By studying asteroid Psyche, we hope to better understand our universe and our place in it,” said Nicola Fox, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate associate administrator.
Despite these assurances, concerns have surfaced about the potential impacts of exploiting 16 Psyche’s wealth.
Economists and commentators warn that flooding Earth’s markets with its metals could collapse global economies, rendering precious metals like gold nearly worthless due to oversupply.
More alarmingly, some fear that altering the asteroid’s orbit or mining it could pose catastrophic risks.
A miscalculation could send fragments toward Earth, with even a 300-meter fragment potentially causing regional devastation, as seen in historical impacts like the 66-million-year-old Chicxulub event that wiped out the dinosaurs.
The mission, propelled by SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, will use a Mars flyby in 2026 to slingshot toward Psyche.
Scientists like Lindy Elkins-Tanton, leading the mission, stress its goal is to unlock secrets of the solar system’s formation, not to mine the asteroid.
However, the private sector’s growing interest in asteroid mining, with technology only 5-10 years from viability, raises questions about future risks.
“The technologies need to be advanced, but what’s lacking is funding,” said planetary physicist Philip Metzger.