WHY ATENS ENJOY ENHANCED ACCESSIBILITY FOR HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT

摘要

Near-Earth objects can be grouped into multiple orbit classifications, amongthem being the Aten group, whose members have orbits crossing Earth’s withsemi-major axes less than 1 astronomical unit. Atens comprise well under 10%of known near-Earth objects. This is in dramatic contrast to results from recenthuman space flight near-Earth object accessibility studies, where the most favorableknown destinations are typically almost 50% Atens. Geocentric dynamicsexplain this enhanced Aten accessibility and lead to an understandingof where the most accessible near-Earth objects reside. Without a comprehensivespace-based survey, however, highly accessible Atens will remain largelyunknown.