Across the solar system, between Mars and Jupiter, there’s a huge asteroid — a metal world unlike any we’ve ever seen before — and a woman is leading the NASA mission to reach it.
This asteroid, called Psyche, is roughly 140 miles in diameter, just under the width of Massachusetts. And unlike most asteroids, which are mainly rocky, Psyche is a massive chunk of nickel and iron. It might also be the core of an early planet. If that’s the case, it could unlock secrets about how the planets in our solar system came to be. Psyche is a big, shiny game-changer, and, in 2022, we will start the epic journey toward it, thanks to Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the mission’s principal investigator — a planetary scientist who totally rocks.
Elkins-Tanton is also the head of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and spacecraft maker Space Systems Loral, ASU will lead the mission, also named Psyche, which was selected in January 2017 by NASA as part of its Discovery Program. Elkins-Tanton’s team included about 140 people during the proposal process, will involve around 250 folks in building the actual Psyche spacecraft, and will include upwards of 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students during the mission who will somehow be involved in the project.
The mission takes off in 2022 and will continue into 2027. The Psyche spacecraft is scheduled to reach the asteroid in 2026 and will orbit it for 21 months, delivering unprecedented findings and shedding light on our solar system’s early roots.
Elkins-Tanton answered Teen Vogue’s questions about the Psyche mission, the asteroid itself, and the significance a Hello Kitty quartet has to this “journey to a metal world.” Elkins-Tanton holds a PhD in geology and geophysics, an MS in geochemistry, and a BS in geology — all from MIT. It’s safe to say that she knows rocks, but Elkins-Tanton explains exactly why Psyche is so particularly captivating to scientists.
“If indeed Psyche is the core of an early small planet, then it will tell us about the building blocks of our own core. Earth’s core is the result of many smaller cores merging and mixing,” she says.
Humans can’t study earth’s core because of the intense heat and pressure that stop us from getting even remotely close to it. (Keep in mind that its core is a few thousand miles below your feet and Psyche is about three times as far away from the sun as we are — mind-blowingly far away.) The irony is not lost on Elkins-Tanton. “Isn’t it amazing that flying through space for three years to visit an asteroid is actually easier than digging into our own planet?”
Her team will help determine what Psyche actually looks like, too. So far, it’s only been seen as a mere dot in distant photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope or in rudimentary models created by earthbound observatories. Scientists have created conceptualizations of what it might look like, but nothing is for certain.
“We have ideas, guesses, based on what we know about the chemistry and physics of asteroids, but we really don’t know! We will certainly be surprised, as we always are when we go to space,” Elkins-Tanton says. “We’ll see all the shapes and colors there are to see. We’ll also be able to use pairs of photos to create a topographic map that shows high and low points.”
While there’s no way to mine Psyche for use on earth now (it’s just too darn far away), the Psyche mission will certainly inform would-be space miners of what they’ll be getting into. Elkins-Tanton says, “We’ll be the first to show what the surface of a metal body looks like, and that will be a critical set of information for anyone who wants to land later on.”
Since asteroid mining is no longer the stuff of science fiction, as real asteroid mining companies are already testing their technologies, Teen Vogue asked Elkins-Tanton her thoughts regarding this shiny new field. “I think asteroid mining is in our future. Getting water and metals from asteroids, rather than having to lift them off the earth, would make planetary exploration much more possible,” she says. Just think: Asteroids could become fuel stops for spacecraft on their hectic commutes around the solar system!
“When we explore off the earth we have the chance to make a more positive, more inclusive society — we can dream big, and we can make it happen. I’d like to see protected areas and shared mining areas on asteroids,” she says. Asteroid mining could be a way for everyone to work together to make the world — and space — a better place.
To celebrate their efforts, Elkins-Tanton says she and several members of her team “actually got tattoos to celebrate being selected for flight.” Elkins-Tanton showed us her tattoo, which she drew herself, of the cross section of a planetesimal from the early solar system. Explaining why her tattoo is so meaningful, she says, “It’s the idea of the paper we wrote in 2011 that lead to the Psyche mission.”
Elkins-Tanton also gave advice for young women who want to get into planetary science and maybe lead their own NASA mission one day. “Go for it! The most obvious paths are either through math, physics, or earth and planetary science at college, or engineering if you’d like to build the spacecraft themselves. More importantly, you’ll need a second degree, a PhD for scientists and a PhD or master’s for engineers, after undergraduate college,” she says. Space-related careers are becoming more and more prevalent, she explained. “There are jobs in universities, and in the government, and in private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Planet.”
If you want to get involved with the Psyche mission now, check out Twitter and Instagram. There is also plenty of Psyche-inspired art created by talented ASU students to get you motivated. Over time, Psyche will have more educational resources available. If you’re considering a career in planetary science, keep in mind that college students can apply to intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and some JPL interns will work on the Psyche mission.
