NASA’s Planetary Science department’s director, Jim Green said that the two asteroid missions fit right into NASA’s plans to investigate the formation and evolution of the solar system.
For so long the space programs spearheaded by NASA have looked into terrestrial planets and a range of different bodies around the sun. With Lucy and Psyche, NASA will get an idea about the remnants of a solar system. Psyche will, in fact, observe the interior of a planet.
While the two missions are interesting, many fail to understand why NASA is placing so much emphasis on asteroids. The final five missions of the Discovery Program included three asteroid missions and two missions to Venus. Popular Science reported that many feel NASA should have picked the two Venus missions instead of funding the missions to asteroids.
The Washington Post reported that NASA is already working on two asteroid missions, The Dawn mission focusing on Ceres and the OSIRIS-REx mission that will look into the Bennu asteroid.
Planetary scientist Mark Marley stated that NASA should have worked on the Venus mission since exoplanet study doesn’t reveal much. NASA is working on understanding the atmosphere of different planets and studying Venus would have helped them get valuable insights.
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