Discovered 13 January 1999 Asteroid group Aten asteroid | Absolute magnitude 23.85 | |
Mission to near earth object neo 1999 ao10 in 2025 2026
1999 AO10 is an Aten near-Earth object. It is orbiting with a semi-major axis of 0.9112417 AU with an eccentricity of 0.1122073 and a period of 0.87 years. The initial orbital elements were determined based on 16 observations made between January 13–15, 1999.
Contents
Manned mission
NASA has proposed a manned mission to the object during 2025 or later. 1999 AO10 is one of a handful of objects within the acceptable range for the mission and is also one of the largest objects that meets the qualifications. In this proposal, a pair of docked Orion spacecraft would spend 14 days at the object, for a total mission time of 155 days. The astronauts would return samples and help test spacefaring capabilities for a future Mars mission. The manned mission would be preceded by an unmanned probe to be sent in 2019 at the earliest.