🌕 NASA scientists will consist of the exploration of the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter's belt and the metal asteroid called Psyche 16🌕

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The NASA scientists have just made an announcement of their next two missions to the solar system to reach some of the most exceptional places in the solar system. The first will consist of the exploration of the Trojan asteroids of the planet Jupiter belt, while the second exploration will be examined by the intriguing metal asteroid Psyche 16. With these two NASA projects, planned for the years 2021 and 2023, respectively , the famous Discovery program will reach 14 missions.

Since 1992, NASA's Discovery television program will be conducting small-scale space explorations, with reduced resources and slightly shorter development times, but always with outstanding results for viewers. The main objective will be to broaden the understanding of the solar system, in addition to improving mission performance through the use of new technologies and increasing participation in the entire universe in them. The founding of the Discovery television show was a breakthrough in the way the agency explored space, allowing scientists to deepen their imagination for the first time to design innovative scientific research. Likewise, this televi- sion program was one of the first of NASA to have an education plan for viewers and public outreach that will communicate the excitement of space exploration to the world's public.

In this regard, the agency of NASA has just made some announcements of its next two missions, which promise to be unique in doing what has never been done before by other scientists: the missions that will be grabbing is to reach two of the most strangers of the solar system. Lucy and Psyche these are the names that were assigned to these two missions that will be carried out, and are scheduled to launch in the years 2021 and 2023, respectively. The first will consist in the exploration of the Trojan asteroids of the belt of the planet Jupiter, while the second one will try to examine a single and unknown metal asteroid in the solar system. However, the two exploration maintain the same goal: to study the origin of the solar system.

Regarding the task, Mr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA, explains about the missions that the television channel Discovery has with the public that sees them: "This is what the Discovery missions are about, going to places that we have never been to. before to make possible an innovative science ".

The choice of Lucy's name comes from a fossil of the Australopithecus found in the year of 1974. In the same way that its namesake helped to understand the history of human evolution, the present mission that aims to revolutionize the understanding of our origins.The project that will be carried out will consist of a robotic spaceship, already programmed to be launched in the month of October 2021 and reach its first destination: an asteroid of the main belt of the planet Jupiter, in the year 2025. in 2027 and 2033, this spacecraft will explore six of the Trojan asteroids trapped by the gravity of the planet Jupiter.

It is believed that the Trojan asteroids are originated from a much earlier era in the history of the solar system and could have been formed beyond the current orbit of the planet Jupiter. "Because the Trojan asteroids are remnants of the primary material that formed the planets, they have vital clues to decipher the history of the solar system," explained Harold F. Levison, Lucy's principal investigator.

In part, Psyche, also a robotic mission to do, is previously scheduled to launch in October of the year 2023 and will achieve its goal until the year 2030. In this way, the ship will explore one of the most interesting objectives and intriguing of the main belt of the asteroids: the metal giant called Psyche 16. is located three times farther from the Sun than the planet Earth, the asteroid measures about 210 kilometers in diameter and, unlike most other bodies that are rocky or frozen, this asteroid is thought to be composed mainly of iron and nickel, similar to the core of the Earth. The scientists who are investigating ask if it could be the nucleus of an ancient planet the size of the planet Mars, which due to a series of collisions billions of years ago would have lost its rock layers. This mission will help science to understand how the layers of the planets that possess it and other bodies separate at the beginning of their existence.

🌏imagen del asteroide que sera explorado por la NASA Psyche 16🌏

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"This is an opportunity to explore another new type of world, not one of rock or ice, but one that is made of metal," says Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of the mission. "Psyche 16 is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and it is the only way for humans to visit a nucleus. and we also learn a little more about the interior space by visiting outer space "

🌏Artistic image of the ship Psyche flying over the asteroid Psyche 16 and ship Lucy flying over the Trojan asteroid Eurybates🌏

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The ships already named as Lucy and Psyche were chosen for the television program Discovery among five finalists, among whom were the long-awaited missions to explore the surface and atmosphere of the planet Venus, which for now they will have to keep waiting. These missions are of relatively low cost and address key issues of the great solar system, with the direction and design of a principal investigator, bringing together these team of scientists and engineers. At the moment, they have already been carried out with all 11 missions of this type, to which must be added the extended InSight, scheduled for 2018, and the two just announced. So, then, NASA continues to project large missions that seek to unravel the unknowns surrounding the creation of the Sun, the planets and their changes so that over time someday we can come to understand our human origins..