juliensimon/nhats-accessible-asteroids

NASA NHATS Near-Earth Accessible Asteroids

Credit: NASA/ESA

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Near-Earth asteroids accessible for human space flight missions, from NASA JPL's NHATS study. Includes delta-v requirements and trajectory counts.

The NHATS study identifies near-Earth asteroids that could be reached by crewed spacecraft with relatively low delta-v (velocity change) requirements. These are potential targets for human exploration missions, sample return, and in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU).

Each asteroid in this dataset has at least one viable round-trip trajectory with total delta-v under 12 km/s, total mission duration under 450 days, and stay time of at least 8 days. The dataset is continuously updated as new asteroids are discovered and orbits are refined.

The delta-v requirement is the single most important metric for mission feasibility in space exploration. Unlike terrestrial travel where distance dominates cost, spaceflight cost scales with the velocity change needed to match orbits with a target. A round-trip delta-v under 6 km/s -- comparable to what is needed to reach the lunar surface and return -- makes an asteroid reachable with existing or near-term propulsion technology. The most accessible targets in this dataset have delta-v requirements below 5 km/s, making them energetically easier to reach than the Moon despite being millions of kilometers away.

Mission duration and the number of viable trajectories provide complementary selection criteria. A target with thousands of viable trajectories offers scheduling flexibility -- crucial for mission planning that must account for launch window constraints, spacecraft readiness, and orbital mechanics.

These asteroids are also prime candidates for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) -- extracting water, metals, and volatiles from asteroid material to support deep-space operations. The combination of low delta-v accessibility and potential resource richness makes NHATS targets central to long-term plans for a sustained human presence beyond low Earth orbit.

This dataset is suitable for tabular regression tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
designation	str	Primary MPC asteroid designation (e.g., '2021 PH27', '1999 AO10')	2010 PS66	0.0%
observation_magnitude	float64	Observed visual magnitude at the time of discovery or most recent apparition; null when not available; fainter (larger) values indicate smaller or more distant objects	23.69	40.0%
max_diameter_m	float64	Estimated upper bound on effective diameter in meters, derived from absolute magnitude H and assumed minimum albedo; null when H magnitude is unavailable	73.0	0.0%
orbit_condition_code	int64	MPC orbit uncertainty metric (0-9); 0 = well-determined multi-opposition orbit, 9 = very poorly constrained single-opposition arc; affects reliability of accessibility predictions	6	0.0%
n_viable_trajectories	int64	Total number of viable round-trip trajectory opportunities found by NHATS, counting all launch dates and mission profiles; higher = more scheduling flexibility	9060	0.0%
min_diameter_m	float64	Estimated lower bound on effective diameter in meters, derived from absolute magnitude H and assumed maximum albedo; null when H magnitude is unavailable	16.0	0.0%
obs_flag	str	Observation flag from NHATS indicating whether the object is currently observable or has upcoming observing opportunities	S	0.3%
full_name	str	Full formatted name/designation including any IAU proper name	(2010 PS66)	0.0%
min_delta_v_kms	float64	Minimum total delta-v (Earth departure + outbound transfer + return) for any viable round-trip trajectory in km/s; <6 km/s = energetically comparable to reaching the lunar surface; NHATS search limit is 12 km/s	10.27	0.0%
min_mission_duration_days	int64	Minimum total round-trip mission duration in days across all viable trajectories; NHATS search limit is 450 days; shorter durations preferred for crewed missions due to life support and radiation constraints	210	0.0%

Quick stats

• 6,883 accessible asteroids
• Mean minimum delta-v: 9.04 km/s
• Lowest delta-v target: 3.32 km/s
• 690 targets with delta-v < 6 km/s

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/nhats-accessible-asteroids", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/nhats-accessible-asteroids", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Easiest targets to reach
easy = df.nsmallest(20, "min_delta_v_kms")
print(easy[["designation", "min_delta_v_kms", "min_mission_duration_days", "n_viable_trajectories"]])

# Targets with many trajectory options
flexible = df.nlargest(20, "n_viable_trajectories")
print(flexible[["designation", "n_viable_trajectories", "min_delta_v_kms"]])

# Delta-v distribution
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 5))
ax.hist(df["min_delta_v_kms"].dropna(), bins=50)
ax.set_xlabel("Min delta-v (km/s)")
ax.set_ylabel("Count")
ax.set_title("NHATS Asteroid Delta-v Distribution")
plt.show()

Data source

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/nhats/

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About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{nhats_accessible_asteroids,
  title = {NASA NHATS Near-Earth Accessible Asteroids},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/nhats-accessible-asteroids},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0