A survey of potential human-precursor robotic asteroid missions

A preliminary mission analyses survey of conceptual robotic asteroid missions that are precursor to potential human asteroid missions is provided, yielding a set of parametric data that can be used for preliminary mission planning. For a set of carefully chosen asteroids, this study generated a table of delta-v data that extends over a range of launch opportunity dates and a range of total transfer times. A subjective comparison of missions was performed and the comparison results are reported, further evaluating the low delta-v analyses data based on a set of Key Performance Parameters that included Earth departure energy (C3) and total transfer time, as well as total delta-v. The key parameter comparison yielded a table of data that synthesizes the rather large set of mission analyses data into a set of "best" cases.