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