Asteroids · 4
Resource & Mining Interest
Real bodies frequently discussed as candidates for future resource use — metal-rich or volatile-rich, and relatively accessible. Inclusion is not a claim that mining is planned or feasible.
A large metal-rich main-belt asteroid, the destination of NASA's Psyche mission to study a possible exposed planetary core.
CategoryMain beltTypeMetallic (M)Diameter222 kmDiscovered1852- 101955 BennuPHA
A small, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid sampled by OSIRIS-REx, whose material was returned to Earth in 2023.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeCarbonaceous (C)Diameter490 mDiscovered1999 - 162173 RyuguPHA
A carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid visited by Japan's Hayabusa2, which returned surface and subsurface samples to Earth in 2020.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeCarbonaceous (C)Diameter900 mDiscovered1999 The first near-Earth asteroid discovered and the first to be orbited and landed on — by NASA's NEAR Shoemaker in 2000–2001.
CategoryNear-EarthTypeSilicaceous (S)Diameter≈ 34 × 11 × 11 kmDiscovered1898