NASA's Plans for Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids

Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) provide an intermediate destination for human missions between the Moon and Mars that, among other benefits, can reduce the risks for all deep space exploration. NEA missions can provide important scientific discoveries about the solar system, vital operational experience for Mars missions and beyond, assist in the development of planetary defense approaches, and foster the future utilization of space resources. This paper summarizes the different NEA Design Reference Missions currently used by NASA's Human Spaceflight Architecture Team, the operational challenges that these missions present, and approaches that can overcome these challenges. Other aspects of NEA missions, such as payload delivery needs, sample collection techniques and requirements for sample return, current strategic knowledge gaps, and operational experience gained during the missions applicable to future Mars missions are also discussed.