How SpaceX to save NASA's millions of dollars with FH launch? NASA most critical task of year...

The advancement of science and technology has helped modern people see what the Earth and other planets in the solar system would have looked like in their infancy. But we've yet to see their deepest part, the core known as the bedrock of planet formation. When October comes around, everything will be gradually revealed as NASA embarks on a unique project to bring humans back to the solar system's earliest history. It was a violent period filled with collisions and accretion that created the terrestrial planets. Mounted on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, the Maxar, formerly SSL, designed Psyche spacecraft with modern equipment will be delivered to the asteroid Psyche to serve this historic mission. All this and more in today's episode of Great SpaceX. For a long time, scientists have speculated that the cores of Earth and similar planets may be a metallic mass formed by particles of dusty material. Those rocky terrestrial planets were a result of the collisions and accretion between the core parts and other types of matter. Because of the current technological limitation, we cannot see and measure directly the planet's deep down, the planet's deepest interior. It'd be smarter if humans were to look for a small planet that is in its fetal stage or if it is just a mass of matter floating in space. As a result, NASA scientists targeted a metal asteroid in the asteroid belt called Psyche. But why Psyche? It is a giant, metal-rich asteroid sighted in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Mainly, it's unusually abundant in metal. And one possible answer to that is probably because it formed at the most primitive time in our solar system. Indeed, under the collision and accretion of matter particles in space, its metallic layers will thicken over the years. Thus, by researching the old, small planet Psyche, we can fully understand the formation of the solar system, including Earth. However, everything is only on paper and we need real space travel. But of course, that's easier said than done. To reach this planet, the spacecraft must travel 507,765,911 kilometers, which is three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Not to mention the asteroid belt is home to many small planets that make it difficult for vehicles to maneuver, and no man-made object has ever entered that location before. So it's safe to say that this mission will be a big challenge for both the spacecraft and the rocket accompanying it. But NASA has been well-prepared for this adventure. In terms of spacecraft, they selected one built by Maxar, an American aerospace technology company. This vehicle runs on its solar energy, which is equipped with a payload that includes an imager, magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer. More importantly, the Maxar spacecraft needed a powerful and reliable rocket that could take it from Earth's surface to its destination in orbit. Thus, in 2020, NASA kicked off the program through a $117 million contract to find a suitable rocket. The agency originally planned to start the project in July of 2022, but has now moved to October 5th of 2023 due to a software issue with the Psyche spacecraft. There were two bright candidates including SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. SpaceX proposed the Falcon Heavy, and ULA brought forth their Atlas V. But in the end, NASA chose the Falcon Heavy. According to SpaceX's tweet, NASA requires the highest level of launch vehicle reliability for this challenging mission. It means that SpaceX's rocket has some advantages to make it better than the Atlas V. First of all, the Falcon Heavy was the most powerful launcher in operation at the time with 27 Merlin engines, generating approximately 5.1 million pounds of thrust or pound-force at liftoff. A type of rocket with huge thrust will be suitable for the flight going into deep space like Mars' orbit. Compared to the 3,827 kN or 860,000 pound-force maximum thrust of the Atlas V, SpaceX easily dwarfs the ULA in this criterion. Secondly, although both Falcon Heavy and the Atlas V are basically the same size in terms of the fairing, the Falcon rocket can carry more payload with a mass of 16.8 tons to a Mars transfer orbit. Meanwhile, ULA's payload capacity maxes out between 4.75 and 8.9 tons outside of LEO, which is much lower than that of the SpaceX rocket. Thirdly, despite possessing a large force and large payload capacity, SpaceX's launcher overall only costs NASA $97 million per launch, much cheaper than the $110 million for the Atlas V. That's the difference from SpaceX making their rockets reusable while ULA doesn't. Last but not least, there is a sensitive matter around Atlas V's engine given that the ULA uses Russia's RD-180 engine to power its workhorse Atlas V rocket, which the company has flown for nearly two decades. Back in 2014, after Russia invaded Crimea, Congress banned the use of Russian rocket engines to launch national security satellites, which would have prevented the ULA from using the Atlas V for missions for the Defense Department. Following Congress, NASA also attempted to call for new inventions from U.S. aerospace private companies under valuable contracts to gradually escape from dependence on Russian aerospace. It's very clear that in the Psyche project, NASA wishes to put American-made products as a top priority. After the ban was finally lifted, the ULA planned to retire the Atlas V, developing a new replacement instead called the Vulcan Centaur, which is powered by Blue Origin's BE-4 engine. But as of 2023, both the Vulcan and the BE-4 are still delaying their first launch, while the Falcon Heavy rocket marks its fifth launch and all five of its flights have been successful. Therefore, it can be said that NASA's choice was ahead of its time. Some may even regard the Psyche asteroid as a treasure in outer space. As you know, this metal-rich asteroid is not only scientifically viable, but also economically valuable because it contains large amounts of gold, nickel, and iron. And you've probably heard many times before that mining them and bringing them all back to Earth is difficult. Since the current level of technology and science, we'd probably be losing out on billions of dollars trying to do so, let alone its negative consequences on the supply and demand situation of the global market. That's not to say that the minerals, especially gold, on our planet are completely worthless. The elite, not just Elon Musk, soon realized that the metal-rich asteroid Psyche was truly a great stepping stone for the journey to colonization of Mars. The huge reserves of gold hidden under Psyche's rough shell will be a valuable source of technological raw materials. This soft metal is used as an electroplated coating on connectors and contacts, gold-bonding wires in semiconductor packages, or to fabricate hybrid circuits and solder coating for printed circuit boards and components. Building an electronics factory or even a rocket on Mars would be quite the undertaking. Psyche is closer to Mars than it is to Earth and some other planets, so shipping minerals from there will be much cheaper than it would be back to Earth. More importantly, no one has reached it before. That's why the competition between SpaceX and the ULA to win NASA's Psyche contract has been so intense. The race to this potato-shaped planet could be as serious as the race to the moon, for whoever sets foot there first will have the right to achieve the universe's highest prize, in the form of giant mineral mines. And if you're concerned about the government's strict laws about space mining, don't worry. In 2015, the United States passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. The main principle of the CSLCA is that, per the Outer Space Treaty, a state or other legal entity cannot own a planet or space object, such as an asteroid, but such entities can extract and sell resources derived from these objects for private profit. Although Musk's multi-planet plan is just at the threshold, we have gradually seen that each strategy and small step that he places and takes into his plan, that reflects its level of sophistication and complexity, and Psyche is truly an important milestone in his journey. While both NASA and SpaceX are working tirelessly to complete preparations for the upcoming mission, the only thing that we can do now is to wait for great things coming this October, when SpaceX's gigantic Falcon Heavy lifts off from the ground and delivers the Psyche spacecraft to one of the most mysterious places in the universe. And that's it, folks. If you want to support our channel and get access to exclusive content, please consider becoming a patron by clicking the link in the description below. We appreciate your generosity and your passion for space exploration. As always, this is Kevin from GreatSpaceX, and until next time, keep looking up.