NASA's 'asteroid autumn': MailOnline delves into a trio of exciting missions - from visiting a '$10,000 QUADRILLION space rock' to retrieving a sample from a 4.5 billion-year-old rock that could reveal how life on Earth began

It has been billed as NASA's'asteroid autumn' and involves a trio of exciting missions that could answer some truly mind-boggling questions. From offering clues to how life on Earth began, to unlocking the secrets of the solar system, key milestones for each voyage are due to play out over the next six weeks. They include one rocket launch, a distant fly-by between Jupiter and Mars, and the recovery of ancient space rocks in the Utah desert that could contain the ingredients for life. Of the three, the lift-off of NASA's Psyche spacecraft probably sounds the most mundane -- but no so fast. That is also a fascinating mission, because it is setting off on a 2.5 billion-mile (4 billion-kilometre) journey to find out once and for all if a metal-rich asteroid really could bring down the world's economy.