INEO - IMAGING OF NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS

INEO is a program of four explorer flyby missions for imaging near-Earth objects by means of small spin stabilized spacecrafts. A low-cost approach is achieved by using existing hardware and available scientific instrumentation. For the first mission the payload consists of the flight space model of the Halley multicolour camera and three Munich dust counters. The imaging instrument will determine the physical properties of the target. The dust environment of the asteroid or comet will be investigated with the dust detectors. For the follow-on missions different cameras and spectrometers and a magnetometer are proposed. In this paper the outline of INEO is presented which will either be launched as an auxiliary passenger on large launch systems, like ARIANE IV, or as the main payload on medium sized launch vehicles, like TAURUS, M-3S-II or CZ-ID, without changing the configuration of the space probe. First results of mission analysis will be presented.