As asteroid expeditions go, NASA's upcoming Psyche mission is about as exciting as they come.

It may not involve saving the planet Earth like Bruce Willis did in the 1998 sci-fi blockbuster Armageddon, but it will be able to tell if a metal-rich space rock has the potential to bring down the world's economy.

That's because the orbiter is due to explore a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid called 16 Psyche, which scientists think may be packed full of iron, nickel and gold with a value in excess of $10,000 quadrillion (£8,072 quadrillion).