By 
Linda Elkins-Tanton
 | 
TED-Ed Original

Why is NASA sending a spacecraft to a metal world?

In 2026 an unmanned NASA spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at 16 Psyche a massive metallic asteroid floating somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Why is NASA so interested in this heavy metal asteroid? Are we going to mine all that metal or build a giant space magnet? Linda T. Elkins-Tanton explains how the real answer can be found right under our feet.

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