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NASA Is Planning Mission To An Asteroid Worth $10 Quintillion (usatoday.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rags-to-riches dept.

New submitter kugo2006 writes: NASA announced a plan to research 16 Psyche, an asteroid potentially as large as Mars and primarily composed of Iron and Nickel. The rock is unique in that it has an exposed core, likely a result of a series of collisions, according to Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche's principal investigator. The mission's spacecraft would launch in 2023 and arrive in 2030. According to Global News, Elkins-Tanton calculates that the iron in 16 Psyche would be worth $10,000 quadrillion ($10 quintillion).

2 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What complete nonsense by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The $10 Quadrillion figure is total baloney. You can't just take the current value and extrapolate, because the price would fall as the supply rises. A one carat diamond may be worth $10,000, but if there were suddenly a trillion of them, they would be worth next to nothing, and people would use them as gravel in their driveways.

  2. Shipping and Handling by zamboni1138 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Somebody forgot about shipping and handling.

    It's all about location, location, location. You got a buyer for that $10 Quintillion USD worth of iron protoplanet located in the astroid belt? Didn't think so.