This month, the Open University (in partnership with the company QinetiQ) presented a proposal to the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council's Science Committee, for consideration of a small mission to visit a Near Earth Object (NEO). The mission, SIMONE (Spacecraft Intercept Mission to an Object Near Earth), which has already progressed through the first stage of mission selection, would be the world's first mission to the most primitive class of asteroid (a so-called 'C-class' asteroid) and would be the world's first interplanetary micro-satellite (i.e. around 100 kg mass). The satellite would utilise QinetiQ's ion drive engine, which allows the spacecraft to reach a NEO without the use of large conventional rocket motors. The mission would launch (provisionally) at the end of 2006 and rendevous with target NEO two years later.

SIMONE's scientific objectives are to determine the bulk, and surface/sub-surface properties, morphology, composition and geologic history of a 'primitive' NEO. NEOs are of great interest, not only in terms of pure science, but also because of the possibility of catastrophic impact on the Earth. NEOs have the following characteristics: