The scientific interest in near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and the classification of some of those as potentially hazardous
asteroid for the Earth stipulated the interest in NEA exploration. Close-up observations of these objects will increase
drastically our knowledge about the overall NEA population. For this reason, a multiple NEA rendezvous mission through
solar sailing is investigated, taking advantage of the propellantless nature of this groundbreaking propulsion technology.
Considering a spacecraft based on the DLR/ESA Gossamer technology, this work focuses on the search of possible
sequences of NEA encounters. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through a number of fully-optimized
trajectories. The results show that it is possible to visit five NEAs within 10 years with near-term solar-sail technology.
Moreover, a study on a reduced NEA database demonstrates the reliability of the approach used, showing that 58% of the
sequences found with an approximated trajectory model can be converted into real solar-sail trajectories. Lastly, this second
study shows the effectiveness of the proposed automatic optimization algorithm, which is able to find solutions for a large
number of mission scenarios without any input required from the user
