AbstractThe Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched an asteroid sample return spacecraft "Hayabusa2" on December 3, 2014 by the Japanese H2A launch vehicle. Hayabusa2 aims at the round trip mission to the asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Hayabusa2 successfully conducted the Earth gravity assist on December 3, 2015, and now the spacecraft is flying toward Ryugu with the microwave discharge ion engine as the means of propulsion. As of September 2016, 1346h of the ion engine operation has been achieved as planned. Three touch downs/sample collections, one kinetic impact/crater generation, four surface rovers deployment and many other in-situ observations are planned in the asteroid proximity phase. The operation team will perform extensive operation practice/rehearsal using a hardware-in-the-loop simulator in the year 2017 to be ready for the asteroid arrival in the summer 2018.
HighlightsJAXA successfully launched the world-second asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa2 in 2014.The spacecraft design, including 10 onboard instruments/robots, were overviewed.The first 1.5 years of operation history are explained with major achievements during the cruise.The Earth swingby was successful, and the ion engine propelled trajectory control goes smoothly.The future operation plan, such as asteroid proximity phase and Earth return cruise are described.
Cruise status of Hayabusa2: Round trip mission to asteroid 162173 Ryugu
Acta Astronautica ; 136 ; 176-181
2017-03-16
6 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Magnetic Properties of Asteroid (162173) Ryugu
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) | 2020
|