New Class of Asteroids Created Identifies 'Easily Retrievable Objects'

Besides offering insight into the formation, evolution and composition of the solar system, asteroids could one day prove a veritable source of much needed resources as humankind continues to grow in leaps and bounds. However, before this can happen, scientists have yet to determine a way to retrieve or otherwise access them. For this reason, researchers from the University of Strathclyde in the UK have run an analysis of all currently known Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) in order to determine a new category: Easily Retrievable Objects (ESOs).

The group is defined as any object that could be somehow finagled into an "accessible" orbit, or an orbit around the L1 or L2 Lagrangian points where the gravitational force of the Sun and Earth balance out, through changing its velocity by less than 500 meters per second, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Technology Review."

For example, the team says that one asteroid with a diameter between 2 and 7 meters called 2006 RH120 needs a mere nudge in velocity of 58 meters per second to get it orbiting around L2 -- a feat, they hypothesize, that could be accomplished "with a single burn" specifically on Feb. 1, 2021, after which point it would need only five years to reach its destination.

The plan isn't perfect, however. Foremost among the issues raised regarding such a venture is the threat of accidentally placing an otherwise harmless asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. And then there is the fact that any asteroid orbiting L1 or L2 would need constant upkeep due to their highly unstable orbits.

And while private companies such as Planetary Resources are working to come up with viable solutions to such questions, NASA, too, has joined in the gold rush preparations with plans to launch OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security and Regolith Explorer), an asteroid sample return mission.

Scheduled for launch in Sept. 2016, the spacecraft will arrive at the asteroid Bennu by Oct. 2018 where it will measure how the tiny push from sunlight alters its orbit in order to help astronomers "predict this influence on the path of any asteroid that presents an impact risk to Earth," an agency press release reads.

"However, the mission will develop important technologies for asteroid exploration that will benefit anyone interested in exploring or mining asteroids," said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the mission, "whether it's NASA or a private company."