MANTIS (Main-belt Asteroid and NEO Tour with Imaging and Spectroscopy) is a mission concept that wouldflyby 14 asteroids covering a wide range of types and masses, and obtaining remote sensing and in-situ data. This mission would explore the diversity of asteroids to understand theSolar system's history, its present processes, and hazards. The concept was proposed in 2019 to NASA'sDiscovery Program to compete for funding and development.^[1]

The MANTIS mission was first proposed to NASA's Discovery program in 2015, and it would have flown by nine asteroids, but it was not selected at that time.^[2] The concept was reformulated and proposed again in 2019.^[1] The MANTIS mission would perform aflyby tour ofnear-Earth andMain belt asteroids as a means of observing several members of this population of objects, providing discovery science and also returning data that would be complementary and contextual to past, present, and future missions.^[3]

The spacecraft would visit 14 asteroids, and would focus on members of eight knowncollisional families of different spectral classes and in different parts of theasteroid belt. The largest of these is50 Virginia, an 85-km asteroid. The current mission concept was formulated by a team composed of scientists from Johns Hopkins UniversityApplied Physics Laboratory, NASAGoddard Space Flight Center, and theUniversity of Colorado.^[1]

The proposed science payload includes four instruments:^[3][1]

• a narrow-angle camera similar to that on board theNew Horizons,Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), andLucy spacecraft
• Near-infrared imaging spectrometer similar to the CRISM instrument on board theMars Reconnaissance Orbiter
• amass spectrometer analyzing microsamples shed by asteroids andinterplanetary dust particles encountered during cruise.
• a mid-infrared camera measuring thermal emission built by collaborators in the United Kingdom.

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