Near Earth Asteroid Prospector

The Near Earth Asteroid Prospector, or NEAP, was a concept for a small innovative commercial spacecraft mission by the private company SpaceDev. The goal was to fly NEAP to a targeted near-Earth asteroid residing beyond Earth's orbit, successfully land one or more scientific instruments on the asteroid, communicate the scientific data to Earth, and claim the asteroid as private property. The project ran into fundraising difficulties. One of the most likely candidates was 4660 Nereus.^[1][2]

See also

• Asteroid mining

References