The Psyche Mission Could Unlock the Future of Asteroid Mining

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, Sunday morning, Steve Kates, otherwise known as Doctor Sky. What’s going on up there? Well, Steve, give us a update.

0:09 Speaker 2 Well, Good morning, John, Happy Sunday, Happy August. Time flies when you’re having fun. Let’s go out into outer space with a spacecraft that’s called Psyche. The spacecraft is headed to a strange asteroid, John, that may be just the metal core of a pre formed planet or a planet that never really got to be formed. It was launched

0:29 back in twenty twenty three, and the news is it just was using Mars’s gravity to kind of give it a kick in the pants. It passed Mars on May fifteenth, headed out to this asteroid. John. The asteroid is about one hundred and forty miles in diameter, mostly made ninety five percent they say, nickel iron. Why are they doing

0:48 this because eventually the concept of asteroid mining could make somebody the old time richest person or company in the entire world. But we have to keep track, John, at these asteroid. This one’s not anywhere near hitting the Earth by any means, but the spacecraft very briefly, this spacecraft is using laser communications, which is a first out and

1:10 outer space. In other words, not just radio, but using light and lasers. And they’re using engines here, John, that are not simply chemical engines. They’re using something called xenon propulsion. But this is it’s like electric thrusters that push these spacecraft.

1:26 So it’s really promising for what this spacecraft is doing, called the Psyche mission, named after the asteroid Psyche.

1:34 Speaker 1 Wow. Well, I mean, there’s so many interesting things are going to happen over the next to ten twenty thirty forty years. And I hope me and you around to see him.

1:44 Speaker 2 I hope. So it’s like Star Trek coming to our lives. Little bits and pieces. And here’s some information. A company John called reflect Orbital. We’ve talked to them on my own program here on this radio station. Proud to say it.

1:57 The company reflect Orbital is looking to put these mirrors in space and beam down sunlight. Now, there may be a lot of controversy from the astronomy community. They want dark skies, they don’t want any interference with the night and the darkness. But here could be a very good use for this particular array as they put these satellites up.

2:15 The first one should be launched later this year. Imagine John earthquake disaster recovery with all the number of earthquakes that are happening around the Earth, their plan and among any of the things that they’re looking to do, this could shed light no pun intended on areas for earthquake recovery, when of course they may be able to save lives

2:36 and protect people from the horrors of things like that, and also to add an extra sunlight to these large solar farms. This is not science fiction, it’s actually reality and it’s interesting the young entrepreneurs that are developing these space technologies.

2:52 Speaker 1 So what’s the biggest mystery of the week This week?

2:55 Speaker 2 John, we go back to Mars, and here’s the question. How did Mars lose its that sphere and its magnetic field? Because when astronauts go there, I know you and I both love the topic of Mars. We have to understand one of the reasons that this could have happened. Geologists say that the core of Mars, unlike the Earth, cooled

3:12 and solidified, so it stopped that fluid motion that we have in our inner core, which causes what we call a dynamo, and that dynamo with this material super hot like the sun, creates a magnetic field, so Mars doesn’t have that. And also the answer may be an answer to why the atmosphere of Mars has gone away. Solar

3:32 wind over the years and billions of years has stripped it of its atmosphere. So as much as it’s a planet that we want to explore, just know that it probably has a dead core. Better days were on Mars a long time ago. But John, the two rovers that are running around, Perseverance and Curiosity. Here’s a weather report

3:51 from Curiosity as of July twenty fifth. The high temperature on Mars, John, why the Curiosity rover thirty two degrees fahrenheit and the nighttime temperature got down to ninety six below zero fahrenheit. And don’t you should know that this is an area near the equator of Mars, and it’s still middle of summer in that region of Mars, so

4:12 it’s a very very difficult climate. When we go to Mars, it’s day. This is an interesting thing. It’s thirty nine minutes longer than an Earth day. So there is some kind of resemblance to the Earth. But let’s hope Earth doesn’t turn into what Mars is today.

4:29 Speaker 1 Don’t you think, oh, well, maybe a couple billion years or so. I still think that the planet Earth is a living entity and corrects itself, et cetera, et cetera, and I like to discuss that in detail someday.

4:46 Speaker 2 Absolutely, John, the great mysteries of the universe is what we try to do here and appreciate the opportunity not only from the realms of astronomy, space, aviation, weather and so much more. And obviously proud to be part of the WABC fan with the Doctor Sky experience on the weekends.

5:03 People seem to enjoy it and we continue to open up our minds about the great mysteries.

5:08 Speaker 1 Steve Kates, thank you so much. I have a great rest of the weekend. I hope it stays below one hundred and twenty.

5:14 Speaker 2 Absolutely, John. Out here in Arizona one hundred and eighteen the other day, and we’re set for higher temperatures. God bless them her, God bless