NASA has selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system – a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our sun. The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
Lucy will study the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit, while Psyche will be the first spacecraft to visit a metal asteroid.
This is exciting stuff.