The search for NEOs as potential candidates for use in space missions to Venus and Mars

TL;DR

This study analyzes over 35,000 NEOs to identify potential candidates for space missions to Venus and Mars, focusing on their orbital approaches within a century.

Contribution

It introduces a method to select NEOs suitable for multi-planet space transfers based on their orbital dynamics over 2020-2120.

Findings

120 candidates for quick transfers within 180 days

2 candidates for double transfers involving three planets

10 candidates for multiple consecutive planetary approaches

Abstract

In this work, we analyzed the orbits of more than 35,000 (for 2024) near-Earth objects (NEOs) for the possibility of successive approaches to all pairs of planets: Earth, Venus, and Mars in the time range from 2020 to 2120. We have selected 120 candidates for Earth-Mars, Earth-Venus, Mars-Earth, Mars-Venus, Venus-Earth, and Venus-Mars fast transfers (within 180 days); 2 candidates for double transfers (consecutive approaches with three planets); 10 candidates for multiple transfers, when an asteroid has several consecutive paired approaches to planets in a hundred years.