Prospector's Skymap
There have been over 535,000 asteroids discovered to date and they're all different. Some 7,121 of them are known to cross the orbit of the Earth and so are referred to as the near-Earth asteroids. If you're interested in flying a robotic mission to an asteroid, you need some idea of how much delta-v your spacecraft is going to need. I've written on this before. However, if you're interested in flying humans to an asteroid, you also need to know how long the round trip is likely to be.
To answer this, one needs to know both how far away the asteroid is at closest approach to Earth, and for how many days it will remain that close. To the interested public, finding this information out using the available NASA tools is a slow process, and understanding what you've discovered is difficult without good visualization.
Introducing the Prospector's Skymap, a tool for visualizing Earth-centric plots of asteroid trajectories over the next 20 years, in 3d. Included is ~500 asteroids that have low delta-v rendezvous. The blue part of the trajectory is "within range" of an average human mission duration of 6 months, which can be configured by setting the maximum lunar distance in the range box. See the online help.
In addition to visualization I've been doing some offline data processing. Probably the most interesting result is a list of targets that have low delta-v rendezvous requirements, close approach within 20 lunar distances, sorted by year, for the next 20 years. Here's the csv file.
* under 20 LD
| Asteroid | Close approach | Distance (LD) | #days* |
|---|---|---|---|
| (2009 SH2) | 2010 SEP 30 | 7.123335 | 37 |
| (2005 UN) | 2010 OCT 24 | 11.018314 | 26 |
| (2006 JY26) | 2010 NOV 04 | 14.304191 | 31 |
| (2010 JW34) | 2010 NOV 21 | 19.351126 | 16 |
| (2008 KT) | 2010 NOV 23 | 5.560636 | 61 |
| (2009 BS5) | 2011 JAN 11 | 3.397712 | 61 |
| (2009 UK20) | 2011 MAY 02 | 8.569228 | 30 |
| (2009 BD) | 2011 JUN 02 | 0.900437 | 127 |
| (2007 RQ17) | 2011 JUL 22 | 13.230543 | 56 |
| (2007 DD) | 2011 JUL 23 | 9.295763 | 44 |
| (2009 TM8) | 2011 OCT 17 | 1.101829 | 22 |
| (2009 WN6) | 2011 NOV 05 | 6.324271 | 24 |
| (2008 UR) | 2011 NOV 13 | 17.551555 | 19 |
| (2008 EL68) | 2012 JAN 05 | 8.296077 | 46 |
| (2008 EJ85) | 2012 MAR 06 | 9.229096 | 25 |
| (2010 FR9) | 2012 MAR 22 | 18.405986 | 8 |
| (2001 CQ36) | 2012 MAY 30 | 10.003372 | 28 |
| (2009 BW2) | 2012 AUG 09 | 13.121943 | 25 |
| (2010 JK1) | 2012 NOV 25 | 9.307960 | 28 |
| (2008 ON10) | 2013 AUG 16 | 19.019998 | 13 |
| (2007 CN26) | 2013 AUG 28 | 11.860884 | 21 |
| (2008 PW4) | 2013 AUG 30 | 13.848723 | 19 |
| (2005 TG50) | 2013 NOV 12 | 15.926447 | 38 |
| (2001 AV43) | 2013 NOV 18 | 2.889049 | 103 |
| (2004 FJ31) | 2014 APR 10 | 11.569571 | 18 |
| (2007 HB15) | 2014 APR 28 | 7.406142 | 28 |
| (2010 KV7) | 2014 AUG 15 | 17.871782 | 17 |
| (2006 WZ184) | 2014 NOV 09 | 19.820336 | 4 |
| (2010 GH7) | 2015 MAR 20 | 7.382686 | 35 |
| (2006 HX30) | 2015 MAY 16 | 11.011628 | 32 |
| (2007 BB) | 2016 JAN 16 | 11.164091 | 39 |
| (1994 UG) | 2016 MAR 25 | 17.275873 | 12 |
| (2008 HU4) | 2016 APR 16 | 4.882098 | 136 |
| (2009 DL46) | 2016 MAY 24 | 5.954658 | 26 |
| (2005 OH3) | 2016 AUG 04 | 6.467120 | 48 |
| (2007 RU19) | 2016 AUG 11 | 13.429743 | 22 |
| (2004 KG17) | 2017 MAY 16 | 10.747414 | 30 |
| (2006 SR131) | 2017 SEP 27 | 12.113018 | 15 |
| (2001 WH49) | 2017 OCT 26 | 15.114138 | 23 |
| (2006 XY) | 2017 DEC 20 | 6.146966 | 35 |
| (2008 WM61) | 2017 DEC 02 | 3.592903 | 38 |
| (1991 VG) | 2018 FEB 11 | 18.367953 | 47 |
| (2010 AG3) | 2018 MAR 04 | 15.753700 | 25 |
| (1999 FN19) | 2018 MAY 07 | 9.646226 | 28 |
| (2008 HS3) | 2019 MAY 10 | 14.449071 | 23 |
| (2001 KW18) | 2019 MAY 21 | 17.545783 | 18 |
| (2006 QV89) | 2019 SEP 21 | 14.496112 | 28 |
| (2008 UD95) | 2019 OCT 08 | 16.756188 | 26 |
| (2008 EA9) | 2019 NOV 23 | 11.242446 | 71 |
| (2007 UN12) | 2020 JUL 04 | 16.821816 | 37 |
| (2009 OS5) | 2020 JUL 14 | 17.843878 | 32 |
| (2001 GP2) | 2020 OCT 03 | 3.124592 | 67 |
| (2008 TY9) | 2020 OCT 10 | 17.516709 | 15 |
| (2007 TA23) | 2020 OCT 12 | 16.497889 | 21 |
| (2008 GM2) | 2020 OCT 25 | 15.820380 | 30 |
| (2005 AZ28) | 2020 NOV 10 | 13.804279 | 26 |
| (1993 BX3) | 2021 JAN 17 | 18.420554 | 19 |
| (2004 RW2) | 2021 SEP 05 | 15.734705 | 15 |
| (1982 DB) | 2021 DEC 11 | 10.235235 | 23 |
| (2009 BF58) | 2022 JAN 25 | 6.081125 | 23 |
| (2008 JP24) | 2022 JAN 26 | 19.229932 | 9 |
| (2007 UY1) | 2022 FEB 08 | 13.889908 | 19 |
| (2009 FX4) | 2022 AUG 05 | 9.989264 | 35 |
| (2003 YS70) | 2022 DEC 13 | 10.017109 | 38 |
| (2004 XD51) | 2022 DEC 27 | 11.596943 | 25 |
| (2006 EW) | 2023 FEB 12 | 14.574834 | 20 |
| (2004 OW10) | 2023 MAR 25 | 12.791391 | 24 |
| (2009 QR) | 2023 AUG 21 | 2.686016 | 33 |
| (2001 QQ142) | 2023 DEC 06 | 14.377189 | 19 |
| (2005 FG) | 2024 APR 07 | 15.856559 | 19 |
| (2009 FK) | 2024 MAY 21 | 17.909620 | 13 |
| (1998 KY26) | 2024 JUN 01 | 11.985906 | 27 |
| (2005 ND63) | 2024 JUL 14 | 14.224540 | 14 |
| (2002 NV16) | 2024 OCT 24 | 11.756611 | 58 |
| (2006 HU50) | 2025 MAY 02 | 9.260892 | 23 |
| (2008 ST) | 2025 MAY 20 | 14.253036 | 51 |
| (2008 DG5) | 2025 JUN 06 | 9.085841 | 25 |
| (2008 CM74) | 2025 JUN 25 | 4.864523 | 43 |
| (1999 SF10) | 2025 DEC 18 | 7.278969 | 64 |
| (1999 AO10) | 2026 FEB 13 | 10.433361 | 56 |
| (2000 SZ162) | 2026 OCT 16 | 14.385593 | 24 |
| (2006 SF281) | 2026 OCT 18 | 6.039328 | 42 |
| (2009 SH1) | 2026 SEP 17 | 10.783613 | 19 |
| (2009 HC) | 2027 APR 10 | 6.023004 | 80 |
| (2008 VC) | 2027 NOV 02 | 5.114356 | 33 |
| (2004 AD) | 2028 JAN 06 | 18.270946 | 9 |
| (2005 ER95) | 2028 MAR 23 | 13.025330 | 46 |
| (2009 FQ32) | 2028 MAR 31 | 3.803212 | 38 |
| (2009 WC106) | 2028 MAY 02 | 16.250076 | 21 |
| (2000 SG344) | 2028 MAY 07 | 7.636435 | 212 |
| (2009 WR52) | 2028 MAY 20 | 2.464651 | 31 |
| (2006 RH120) | 2028 AUG 08 | 11.213795 | 188 |
| (2008 EY84) | 2028 SEP 09 | 11.883114 | 31 |
| (2007 DC) | 2028 NOV 05 | 5.717175 | 50 |
| (2006 SU49) | 2029 JAN 28 | 3.187666 | 37 |
| (2006 UQ216) | 2029 FEB 19 | 13.495717 | 45 |
| (2009 CV) | 2029 MAR 03 | 8.612422 | 77 |
| (2007 WA) | 2029 MAY 13 | 6.036336 | 34 |
| (2000 SL10) | 2029 MAY 16 | 6.760240 | 21 |
| (2010 NN) | 2029 JUN 14 | 12.258461 | 21 |
| (2009 DC12) | 2029 JUL 06 | 18.680698 | 15 |
| (2008 TN9) | 2029 SEP 29 | 18.178757 | 10 |
| (2006 HE2) | 2029 SEP 30 | 2.029127 | 34 |
| (2008 UA202) | 2029 OCT 20 | 5.299326 | 60 |
From this data you can determine which target is most favorable in any given year. If you're after really low delta-v requirements, as well as short transit times, then the list gets smaller.
| Asteroid | Close approach | Distance (LD) | #days* | delta-v |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (2010 JW34) | 2010 NOV 21 | 19.351126 | 16 | 4.839129 |
| (2008 KT) | 2010 NOV 23 | 5.560636 | 61 | 5.800001 |
| (2009 BD) | 2011 JUN 02 | 0.900437 | 127 | 4.793479 |
| (2005 TG50) | 2013 NOV 12 | 15.926447 | 38 | 6.153250 |
| (2008 HU4) | 2016 APR 16 | 4.882098 | 136 | 4.577387 |
| (1991 VG) | 2018 FEB 11 | 18.367953 | 47 | 5.238135 |
| (2008 EA9) | 2019 NOV 23 | 11.242446 | 71 | 5.392948 |
| (2007 UN12) | 2020 JUL 04 | 16.821816 | 37 | 6.080512 |
| (2009 OS5) | 2020 JUL 14 | 17.843878 | 32 | 5.764455 |
| (2001 GP2) | 2020 OCT 03 | 3.124592 | 67 | 5.595356 |
| (2008 ST) | 2025 MAY 20 | 14.253036 | 51 | 5.637181 |
| (1999 AO10) | 2026 FEB 13 | 10.433361 | 56 | 5.858708 |
| (2005 ER95) | 2028 MAR 23 | 13.025330 | 46 | 5.814350 |
| (2000 SG344) | 2028 MAY 07 | 7.636435 | 212 | 5.197308 |
| (2006 RH120) | 2028 AUG 08 | 11.213795 | 188 | 3.385696 |
| (2006 UQ216) | 2029 FEB 19 | 13.495717 | 45 | 6.081869 |
| (2008 UA202) | 2029 OCT 20 | 5.299326 | 60 | 5.953219 |
And the list of known near-Earth asteroids keeps growing.
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