The NEAP mission is one of a series of missions SpaceDev is defining as part of its long-range strategy of conducting commercial deep-space missions. NEAP is planned to be injected on a trajectory to the near-Earth asteroid Nereus in January 2002 and should rendezvous with the small, 1-km diameter body approximately four months later to conduct a variety of characterizations and observations using remote sensing instruments and ejectable surface instrument packages.

Dojin announced this week its Cosmic Voyage 2000 (CV2K) program, which makes it possible for people to become "digital passengers" aboard the NEAP vehicle by integrating their digital presence -- image, identity, personal messages, etc. -- on a CD-ROM to be launched and preserved in space. A portion of the proceeds from the CV2K program will be donated to charity or help promote the commercialization of space, as directed by each paying customer.

The $200,000 contract calls for SpaceDev to integrate the Dojin-supplied CD-ROM package into the NEAP vehicle and to successfully launch it into space. Dojin and SpaceDev are considering augmenting this contract with additional low-mass payloads.

"This contract validates one of the several revenue producing approaches we are offering on the NEAP project," said Jim Benson, chairman and chief executive officer of SpaceDev. "We offer FedEx�-like package delivery rides from our commercial price list which defines a variety of services for NEAP, and we are pleased to have this concept validated."

NEAP will be the first mission to deliver payloads -- not necessarily science payloads -- beyond Earth orbit using ordinary commercial business practices. In addition to rides for payloads attached to NEAP, SpaceDev also offers to deliver ejectable instruments or technology test packages to the surface of Nereus. SpaceDev also intends to deliver complete science-quality data sets generated by SpaceDev-supplied instruments back to investigators and researchers on Earth. SpaceDev previously announced a letter of intent with the University of Arizona to provide two such instruments onboard NEAP -- a multi-band camera and a neutron spectrometer.

"We at Dojin Limited are extremely excited about this unique opportunity and feel very fortunate to be the first commercial participant in SpaceDev's historic NEAP mission," said Rick Barrett, Dojin spokesperson.