Images: A vision for an asteroid mission

The DigitalSpace Commons, a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based technology company, has created a design for a new NASA spacecraft and a mission that could eventually allow humans to land on and explore an asteroid, or so-called near-Earth objects. The privately held company plans to unveil the design publicly Monday.

DigitalSpace's simulation design is based on the underlying architecture of NASA's Constellation exploration crew vehicle. Pictured here is a simulation of "extra-vehicular activity," or what's more simply known as a space walk.

In the simulation, astronauts come out of a hatch on the right-hand side of the spacecraft and hold onto rope tethers on the craft so they don't float down to the surface (or, if the asteroid is small in mass, out into space), according to Bruce Damer, president and CEO of DigitalSpace. "There's such little force of gravity that it's like if a lightweight piece of tissue paper were to float to the ground," he said.