I noticed http://www.springerlink.com/content/t8g5v7j785v62327/ about a Brazilian-Russian mission to the asteroids and I wrote to one of the authors.
He sent me a copy of the paper and added a few details. I suspected that this was an academic theoretical work but he tells me that the mission is in a preliminary study phase since 2009. In late 2009 they had technical meetings and workshops concerning also the payload. The Russian IKI was involved from 2010 and last week they had a technical workshop with Brazilian and Russian teams.
The mission is about a rendezvous with a near Earth asteroid known to have at least one satellite. 2001 SN263 is the primary target and 1994 CC the backup. They both have two known satellites
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)