Apollos are the most abundant and commercially viable group of Near-Earth Asteroids. They are Earth-crossing, but unlike Atens, their semi-major axis is greater than 1 AU. This means they spend the vast majority of their time in the deep cold of space outside Earth's orbit, sweeping inward only to cross our path.
Making up over 60% of all known NEAs, Apollos offer the highest sheer volume of targets. If asteroid mining becomes a trillion-dollar industry, the bulk of those resources will come from this classification.
Because they spend most of their time further from the Sun than Earth, many Apollos (specifically C-types) retain significant amounts of water ice and volatiles—crucial for manufacturing rocket fuel in space.
We know we can mine them because we already have. Both the Japanese Hayabusa missions and NASA's OSIRIS-REx successfully rendezvoused with and extracted physical samples from Apollo-class asteroids.
The "All-Stars" of near-Earth space exploration. These are some of the most studied objects in the solar system.
| Designation | Type | Estimated Value | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 101955 Bennu | C-Type | ~$669 Million | Sampled by NASA. It is rich in carbon and water, making it a prime candidate for an orbital "gas station." |
| 162173 Ryugu | C-Type | ~$82 Billion | Sampled by JAXA. Contains pristine organic materials dating back to the formation of the solar system. |
| 25143 Itokawa | S-Type | N/A (Scientific) | The first asteroid ever sampled by humanity (Hayabusa in 2005). Proved that many asteroids are loose "rubble piles" rather than solid rocks. |