A Taxonomic Characterization of Targets in the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt

arXiv:2611.14813v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) will investigate seven main-belt objects to improve our understanding of the distribution and evolution of water and metal-rich materials within the asteroid population. Understanding asteroid properties prior to the mission helps anticipate potential surface activity or hazards and optimize data acquisition during brief flyby windows, while also providing essential context for interpreting in-situ measurements within the broader asteroid population. We present visible-wavelength spectra (0.40-0.95 um) and corresponding taxonomic classifications for all seven EMA targets using Chi2 comparison with the visible portion of the Bus-DeMeo class templates. Notably, our analysis identifies two B-type asteroids, a relatively rare class, providing opportunities for future compositional comparisons between EMA targets and OSIRIS-REx observations of the organic-rich asteroid Bennu. We identify the remaining targets to be S-/L-, X-/C-, and D-types. The suite of asteroids selected for EMA offers a unique opportunity to investigate both intra-class variability and compositional differences across multiple taxonomic types, advancing our understanding of chemical and mineralogical heterogeneity in the asteroid belt.