There is an asteroid floating around out in space called that has been estimated to be worth $700 quintillion, if NASA retrieves this asteroid and divided it up with the population everyone would receive about $93 billion each.
While that isn’t NASA’s plan at all, they will still be visiting the asteroid and much sooner than you might think. Originally the asteroid was found back in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, and NASA now will be going to ’16 Psyche’ to investigate its properties. Considering the size of 16 Psyche, and the properties which are 95% metals (iron and nickel), NASA won’t be traveling to the asteroid for its insane value but instead for a great comparison of its composition versus Earths.
Scientists believe that since the asteroids composition is very similar to that of Earths, we could learn some brand new information about how our own core works, or some new information about how planets are formed. When purely speaking about monetary value, some companies have already formed and are concentrating on building the infrastructure of space mining. Companies such as EuroSun Mining are looking towards the space economy which Morgan Stanley has estimated to $350 billion today, but by 2040 jumps to $2.7 trillion.
Scott Moore, the CEO of EuroSun Mining has said “What we’re doing on the ground now may be impressive, but like everything else, even gold exploration in space is only a matter of infrastructure. We’ll get to it, eventually.” He continues and says “This may be the Holy Grail of space exploration for gold, but it won’t be the first stop on this adventure. It’s already happening from an investment perspective. And the Asteroid Belt is just one aspect of this market. The entire global space market is worth hundreds of billions already.”
16 Psych is currently located 750 million kilometers from Earth, currently NASA plans to send their spacecraft Psyche on August 2022 and it will arrive at the asteroid in 2026 after Mars’ gravitational pull boost in 2023.
700 quintillion divided by 7.5 billion = 93 billion for each person.
We have some facts about 16 Psyche:
- The asteroid is named after a mythological nymph who was the wife of Cupid
- It was discovered in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis
- If the asteroid’s proposed value was divided between every human on Earth, each person would receive $93 billion
- Its average diameter is 140 miles (226 kilometers), about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego or nearly the length of Massachusetts
- Its surface area-246,300 square miles (641,800 square kilometers)-is just a bit smaller than that of Texas
- Radar studies suggest that 16 Psyche is shaped like a potato
- The asteroid is located about 3 times further than the Earth is from the Sun
- NASA’s Psyche mission was approved in 2017
