Search and evaluation of near-earth asteroid long stay-time 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 proximity with Earth, which makes them a unique opportunity for science and commercial missions. In this study, we search for mission opportunities and design and evaluate asteroid mining missions for all known NEAs. With the help of high-performance computing system, a trajectory database that contains all possible round-trip missions to all accessible NEAs between 2030-2065 was created. Details of 2 billion trips, including departure date, stay time, flight time and delta-Vs in different mission stages are recorded. Statistical results of these mission opportunities are given in this study. Meanwhile, NEAs' taxonomy results from various asteroid classification systems are summarised, and the available resources are analysed based on the taxonomy results. General space mining architectures are proposed in the study. Based on the trajectory database and mining architectures, several figures of merit, such as retrievable mass and propellant consumption, were calculated to evaluate the feasibility of mining missions/targets. A retrievable mass map for NEAs is generated based on the figures of merit calculation. Feasible targets for water mining, PGMs mining and other resource mining (e.g. silicates) between 2030-2065 are given based on current known taxonomy information. Furthermore, as the vast majority of NEAs are yet to be classified, the remaining unclassified asteroids are assumed to be water bearing and PGMs bearing asteroids respectively, and feasible targets for future mining missions are given.
- Publication:
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43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021cosp...43E.183X