With President Obama's goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 in mind, scientists and engineers have begun searching for likely targets. Though there are probably thousands of Near-Earth Objects, they are finding choosing one is easier said than done.
At this stage, the group is trying to establish parameters. They want one close enough to allow for a reasonably short mission, for example-- maybe six months for the round trip. They also want to find one that is large enough that truly valuable science can be done on it. And they want one that isn't spinning on its axis too rapidly-- that would only complicate what would already be an extremely dangerous mission.
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Because of the substantial weight penalties needed to protect the human brain from potential damage from heavy nuclei, trying to visit an asteroid would be substantially more expensive than attempting to set up a base on the lunar surface.
If we're really interested in studying a large variety of asteroids, a robotic program with missions to a large variety of asteroids, including sample return missions, would be much more effective and economical than just one or two manned missions to an asteroid.
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