Session Abstract
How are habitable planets like the Earth built? How do we learn what they were built from, and when? We can learn about the rocky exteriors, but one fundamental mystery remains, the metal core. The NASA Psyche mission spacecraft, in flight in space as you read this, is on its way to visit an immensely ancient object in our asteroid belt: A metal body, the first humans will ever have visited.
I'll discuss my winding career path, and how I came to be fascinated by teams and motivated by the power of a common vision, both key to space exploration. I’ll tell what is known and what is hypothesized about the asteroid, how we have planned and built a spacecraft to study this unknown object, how we progressed with the mission, and what lies ahead for new science and changing human knowledge.
Speaker Bio
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a planetary scientist and the lead of the NASA Psyche mission. She is Director of the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. Her research concerns the formation and evolution of rocky planets; volcanic activity and extinctions on Earth; as well as on effective teams and future-facing educational practices. Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her, as is the mineral elkinstantonite. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Elkins-Tanton received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT.