[9] After deployment, NEA Scout was to perform a series of lunar flybys to achieve optimum departure trajectory before beginning its two-year-long cruise.

[6] The mission researchers argued that "characterization of NEAs that are larger than 20 m in diameter is also of great relevance to inform mitigation strategies for planetary defense".

[8] The asteroid made a close approach to Earth in September 2023 of around 5.7 million kilometres, which was when NEA Scout was scheduled to make its flyby.

[10] Observations would have been achieved using a CubeSat performing a close (~10 km) flyby, equipped with a high resolution science-grade monochromatic camera to measure the physical properties of a near-Earth object.

[15] The electronics were based on the context camera design for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO3) instrument[16] with a custom firmware, a ruggedized commercial lens and a fully re-designed enclosure.

[6] While it is possible for a 6U CubeSat to reach an NEA with conventional chemical propulsion, both the number of targets and the launch window would be tightly constrained.

NEA Scout would then have performed a series of lunar flybys to achieve optimum departure trajectory before beginning its 2.0 – 2.5 year-long cruise to the asteroid 2020 GE.

The avionics module accommodated the printed circuit boards for telecommunications, power distribution unit, command and data handling system, Sun sensors, and a miniaturized star tracker.

[18] The cold gas propulsion system was situated below the solar sail and provides detumbling, initial impulsive maneuvers (required for lunar-assisted escape trajectories), and momentum management.