Target evaluation for near earth asteroid long-term mining missions

Abstract

There are currently over 20,000 known Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and more are being discovered on a daily basis. Near earth asteroids are the small bodies whose orbits bring them to within 1.3 AU of the Sun, which makes each one a useful opportunity for science and commercial missions. Here we design and generate a trajectory database for mining mission planning by using a high-performance computing system. The database contains 6373 accessible NEA missions with maximum mission durations of 6 years in the 2030–2065 timeframe. The accessible asteroids’ statistical results show that about 55% of accessible NEAs can provide stay-time of over 4 years in a 6-year mission. A general mining mission architecture is then proposed, and missions are constructed by using the architecture and the database. The taxonomy results for accessible asteroids from major taxonomy systems are summarized, and the available resources on these asteroids are analysed based on the taxonomy information. For the first time, the entire NEA population is assessed realistically from the perspective of asteroid mining and retrievable mass from each asteroid is quantified. Suitable targets for mining water, PGMs and other resources (e.g. silicates) in the 2030–2065 timeframe are identified. For the asteroids without taxonomy information, we did two analyses: assuming i) they are all C-type and ii) all non-C-type. Based on these assumptions, most suitable targets for water and non-water resource mining are identified. These results can be used as guidance for future asteroid mission target selection.