Hayabusa2 Mission is a Japanese space probe launched on December 3, 2014. Its objective is to collect samples from the asteroid Ryugu and return them to Earth for further analysis. The mission follows up on the earlier Hayabusa mission, which returned a small amount of material from the asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2010.
The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, lander and rovers. The orbiter will remain at a distance from Ryugu while the other elements land and explore the surface. The rovers will be deployed first, followed by the lander.
The Hayabusa2 orbiter has a mass of 600 kg and is solar powered with two arrays with a total area of 16 m^2. It carries 18 instruments including cameras, spectrometers and laser altimeters. These are used for mapping Ryugu’s surface features, composition and environment.
The rover MINERVA-II1 consists of two rovers, 1A and 1B, each with a mass of about 1 kg. They are solar powered with panels that have an area of 0.4 m^2 (0.16 m^2 for 1A and 0 .28 m^2 for 1B). Both rovers have four wheels that allow them to move across Ryugu’s surface as well as hop over obstacles up to 20 cm high. Each rover is equipped with two cameras – one wide angle (f/12) camera and one narrow angle (f/24) camera – as well as temperature and infrared sensors; these will be used to create 3D maps of Ryugu’s surface features and study its thermal properties
The third element of Hayabusa2 is the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT), developed by DLR German Aerospace Center in collaboration with CNES French Space Agency, JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencyand NASA National Aeronautics & Space Administration in the United States . MASCOT weighs 10 kg including 4 kg of scientific payloads it carries: Camera (DLR); Spectrometer measuring visible near-infrared light (JAXA / Univ Tokyo); Magnetometer / radiometer measuring magnetic fields & thermal emission respectively(DLR / CNRS Toulouse); Microwave radiometer measuring thermal emission at longer wavelengths(NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). MASCOT will operate for about 16 hours during each 72 hour “day” on Ryugu before its battery needs recharging from sunlight via solar panels on its exterior
After arriving at an altitudeof 20 km above Ryugu’s surface,the spacecraftwill descendto deploythe landinggearand beginlandingoperationsby firingretrorocketswhile simultaneouslyreleasinga landingradarto measuredistanceand speedrelativeto the asteroid .Duringthis processan umbilicalcablewill connectthe spacecraftto MASCOTfor powerand data communicationsuntil touchdownoccursat which pointminor thrusterswill be usedfor finalpositioningbefore cuttingthe umbilicalcord Afterdeploymentof all threeelementsthe Hayabusacraftitselfwill retreatbackto apointfrom whereit can safelyobserveoperationsas theyunfoldover an approximately20 month period All datawill becommunicatedbackt o Earthvia thenetworkof groundstationsthat supportJAXAControlCentrein SagamiharaJapan
Uponcompletionofthe miss ionall elementsof Hayabusawill rendezvous backat Earthwherethey will releasea capsulecontainingany samplematerialcollectedbefore reentering theatmosphereand returningto Earthunder parachutedeployment Samplesreturnedare expectedto provideinsightinto notonlythephysicaland chemicalpropertiesofRyugubut alsohow such bodiesform& evolveover time Such informationcouldhelp usnot onlybetter understandour ownSolarSystembut alsothe formation& evolutionof planetarysystemsthroughoutthe Universe