The Japanese interplanetary probe Hayabusa2 was launched on December 3, 2014 and the probe arrived at the vicinity of asteroid 162173 Ryugu on June 27, 2018. During its 1.4 years of asteroid proximity phase, the probe successfully accomplished numbers of record-breaking achievements including two touchdowns and one artificial cratering experiment, which are highly expected to have secured surface and subsurface samples from the asteroid inside its sample container for the first time in history. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft was designed not to orbit but to hover above the asteroid along the sub-Earth line. This orbital and geometrical configuration allows the spacecraft to utilize its high-gain antennas for telecommunication with the ground station on Earth while pointing its scientific observation and navigation sensors at the asteroid. This paper focuses on the regular station-keeping operation of Hayabusa2, which is called "home position" (HP)-keeping operation. First, together with the spacecraft design, an operation scheme called HP navigation (HPNAV), which includes a daily trajectory control and scientific observations as regular activities, is introduced. Following the description on the guidance, navigation, and control design as well as the framework of optical and radiometric navigation, the results of the HP-keeping operation including trajectory estimation and delta-
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The solar power sail is an original Japanese concept in which electric power is generated by thin-film solar cells attached on the solar sail membrane. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully demonstrated the world’s first solar power sail technology through IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun) mission in 2010. IKAROS demonstrated photon propulsion and power generation using thin-film solar cells during its interplanetary cruise. Scaled up, solar power sails can generate enough power to drive high specific impulse ion thrusters in the outer planetary region. With this concept, we propose a landing or sample return mission to directly explore a Jupiter Trojan asteroid using solar power sail-craft OKEANOS (Oversize Kite-craft for Exploration and AstroNautics in the Outer Solar System). After rendezvousing with a Trojan asteroid, a lander separates from OKEANOS to collect samples, and perform in-situ analyses in three proposed mission sequences, including sending samples back to Earth. This paper proposes a system design for OKEANOS and includes analyses of the latest mission.
Deployable membrane structures are expected to be used for large-area space structures, such as solar propulsion sails, magnetoplasma sails, drag-deorbiting sails, membrane antennas, and solar power sails. They are lightweight and can be compactly stored at launch. One achievement of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was the successful deployment of a 200 m