  The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker ("NEAR") spacecraft orbited and
ultimately landed on the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros. One of the primary
science objectives of NEAR was the MAG experiment, which measured the magnetic
field in the vicinity of Eros during orbit and after landing. Eros is therefore
at the present the best characterized asteroid using in situ measurement of
magnetism. MAG results suggested that Eros was very unmagnetized-with an upper
bound on the natural remanent magnetism (NRM) placed at $1.9\times
10^{-6}\mathrm{A\cdot m^2 \cdot kg^{-1}}$-especially when compared to meteorite
samples of analogous composition. Since meteorites and asteroids are typically
believed to represent the remnants of disrupted parent bodies, the
ramifications of the low level of magnetization of Eros are considerable, since
it could imply disparate origins for objects of similar composition. In this
paper, we explore whether there are any systematic effects related to the
actual process of measurement and derivation of the Erotian NRM, and whether
such effects played a role in the low levels of NRM derived for Eros. By
simulating the orbit of NEAR around Eros and using the field strength values
measured by NEAR, we find that we are able to place a higher bound on the NRM
of Eros by a factor of at least an order of magnitude higher than that
originally suggested by Acu\~{n}a, et al. (2002). We find that if we suppose
Eros to be made up of constituents that have roughly uniform magnetization
directionally, that it is possible to infer an L or LL chondrite-type
composition for Eros within the bounds of values for remanent magnetism
reported in the meteorite record. The results provide a more rigorous
confirmation of the suggestion by Wasilewski, et al. (2002) that Eros cannot be
ruled out as an L- or LL-type analogue.
