A Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) for the Hayabusa-2 Mission (original) (raw)
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Progress in Aerospace Sciences
Now spanning a time frame of already 10 years, the plan to land a European Lander on an asteroid has finally been accomplished. The first idea was established around 2008 in the framework of the European Marco Polo Assessment, studying the possibility to collect a pristine sample of a Near-Earth Asteroid and returning it back to Earth. The lander named MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) was proposed to be carried by the main spacecraft, to land on the surface and by the ability to relocate to investigate multiple surface locations in order to scout the best possible sampling site. After the discontinuation of the original study, MASCOT received an invitation from JAXA to join-in the Hayabusa2 mission, the direct follow-up of the first asteroid sampler Hayabusa. However, MASCOT was selected at a time (mid 2011) when its conceptual design and scientific payloads had not been fully defined; with the carrier spacecraft already in its critical design phase having most of its interfaces fixed; no heritage to use off-the-shelf bus equipment directly and only 3 years left until a proposed final delivery. The tight schedule, tightly defined envelope, and strict margins policy were challenges during its development at all levels. Nevertheless, Hayabusa2 and MASCOT were launched on December 3rd, 2014, and arrived at their destined target asteroid (162173) Ryugu on June 27, 2018. Finally, MASCOT was separated from its mother spacecraft and successfully landed on October 3rd, 2018, accomplishing the first ever landing of a European spacecraft on the surface of an asteroid. This paper provides a review of the performed MASCOT development process including its verification strategy from the first unit hardware test to the final check-out before launch. In addition, it also provides a historical comparison to former fast-paced programs in space.
2015
Since December 2014 the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 is on its journey to asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3. Like its famous predecessor it is expected to study and return samples from its target body. This time, the mother spacecraft has several small passengers. One of them is a compact landing package called MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid surface SCOuT), which has been developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). Once having been released from its mother spacecraft's cradle, MASCOT will descend to the asteroid and after a few bounces will come to rest at a certain location on the surface. Sitting on the surface, it will perform its scientific investigations of the asteroids surface structure, mineralogical and physical properties, thermal behaviour and magnetic effects by using its suite of four scientific instruments: a spectrometer (MicrOmega, IAS Paris), a camera (CAM, DLR Berlin), a radiometer (MARA, DLR Berlin) and a magnetomet...
Delayed only 3 days by weather, the small asteroid lander MASCOT was launched aboard the Japanese HAYABUSA2 asteroid sample-return mission on December 3 rd , 2014, 04:22 UT, within the first interplanetary launch window. Their target is the near-Earth asteroid (162173) 1999 JU 3 . The fully autonomous MASCOT carries four asteroid science instruments, orientation sensors, and an uprighting/relocation mechanism within a shoebox-sized 10 kg spacecraft. Though only an instrumentsized lander, its complexity is comparable to a similarly equipped standalone spacecraft. MASCOT is a fast paced high performance project, developed under strict constraints of volume, mass, available personnel, budget, and accessible infrastructures, to a timely deadline of a celestially fixed launch date. With a model philosophy tailored 'live' at system level, it integrates a unique mix of conventional and tailored model philosophies at units level. A dynamically adapted test programme using Concurrent Assembly Integration and Verification (Concurrent-AIV) kept project risks within acceptable bounds and shortened the system-level AIV phase from the typical 4 to 5 year to 2½ years within a project timeline of 3 years focused on the specific launch opportunity. Here, MASCOT benefited from a preceding phase of a range of lander concept studies at the DLR Bremen Concurrent Engineering Facility since 2008. Within the 3 years project timeline, from the first integrated breadboard model (½ year after first unit-level hardware breadboarding) the MASCOT team has successfully completed approx. 30 MASCOT system level tests, more than 50 additional subunit tests (excluding payloads) as well as approx. 10 test campaigns on its carrier satellite HAYABUSA2. This culminates in almost 100 different test campaigns performed in roughly half the time allocated for such a prototype project which would have followed a standardized way. MASCOT provided useful lessons in assembly, integration, testing and its related management that could be applied to increase the efficiency and decrease the lead time of future interplanetary projects from concept to launch. These lessons may become vital when the first sizeable Earth-impacting asteroid is discovered before its terminal dive. Currently, the MASCOT Flight Spare is planned to be used as Ground Reference Model and to continue functional and environmental testing on system level throughout the first half of 2015. It will be joined by still to be (re-)built partial hardware models for software and operations development. Also, some subsystem test campaigns necessary for optimized operations planning are ongoing or are being planned. All these expand the experience base for future MASCOT activities, and ultimately, for the few precious hours on the asteroid surface of the Flight Model -the one out there of the many. cite this paper as C.D. Grimm, J.T. Grundmann, J. Hendrikse, On Time, On Target -How the Small Asteroid Lander MASCOT Caught a Ride Aboard HAYABUSA2 in 3 Years, 1 Week and 48 Hours, IAA-PDC15-P-66 (preliminary version), 2015 IAA Planetary Defense Conference
The Camera of the MASCOT Asteroid Lander on Board Hayabusa 2
Space Science Reviews, 2016
The MASCOT Camera (MasCam) is part of the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander's science payload. MASCOT has been launched to asteroid (162173) Ryugu onboard JAXA's Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample return mission on Dec 3rd, 2014. It is scheduled to arrive at Ryugu in 2018, and return samples to Earth by 2020. MasCam was designed and built by DLR's Institute of Planetary Research, together with Airbus-DS Germany. The scientific goals of the MasCam investigation are to provide ground truth for the orbiter's remote sensing observations, provide context for measurements by the other lander instruments (radiometer, spectrometer and magnetometer), the orbiter sampling experiment, and characterize the geological context, compositional variations and physical properties of the surface (e.g. rock and regolith particle size distributions). During daytime, clear filter images will be acquired. During night, illumination of the dark surface is performed by an LED array, equipped with 4 × 36 monochromatic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) working in four spectral bands. Color imaging will allow the identification of spectrally distinct surface units. Continued imaging during the surface mission phase and the acquisition of image series at different sun angles over the course of an asteroid day will contribute to the physical characterization of the surface and also allow the investigation of time-dependent B R. Jaumann
The descent and bouncing path of the Hayabusa2 lander MASCOT at asteroid (162173) Ryugu
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Images from the Optical Navigation Camera system (ONC) onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft show the MASCOT lander during its descent to the surface of asteroid (162173) Ryugu. We used results from a previous stereo-photogrammetric analysis that provided precise ONC image orientation data (camera position and pointing), ONC orthoimages, and an ONC-based 3D surface model to combine them with the visibilities of MASCOT itself and its shadow on-ground within the ONC images. We integrated additional information from instruments onboard MASCOT (MASMag, MARA, MASCam) and derived MASCOT’s release position and modeled its free-fall descent path and its velocity over 350 s from its release at ∼41 m altitude above ground until its first contact with the surface of Ryugu. After first contact, MASCOT bounced over the surface of Ryugu for 663 s and came to rest at its first settlement point after four intermediate surface contacts. We again used ONC images that show MASCOT and partly its shadow and ...
B . 2 MASCOT operations on Ryugu – focus on some specific tasks
2019
Hayabusa2 is an asteroid sample return mission operated by the Japanese space agency, JAXA. It was launched in December 2014. In July 2018, the spacecraft has reached the mission target after a 4-year-long cruise. The objective is a C-type primordial asteroid called Ryugu, in search of organic and hydrated minerals that might give essential clues for the solar system formation. The small lander MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid surface SCOuT) carried aboard Hayabusa2 landed on the surface on the 3rd of October 2018 for preliminary in-situ investigations while the probe is aiming to study Ryugu on a global scale and to return samples to Earth. MASCOT was jointly developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). It is equipped with a sensor suite consisting of four fully-fledged instruments. DLR was responsible for developing the MASCOT lander and ground segment, and was in charge of planning and conducting lander joint operations from MUSC. C...
Hayabusa2 - The Next Asteroid Sample Return Mission of Japan
TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY FOR AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES, AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN, 2014
Hayabusa2 mission has started as the follow-on mission of Hayabusa. The target asteroid is 1999 JU3, which is a C-type asteroid. The scientific purpose is to study the formation and evolution of the solar system, especially to study the organic matter and water, which existed in the early stage of the solar system formation. The engineering is also important and the spacecraft will be much more robust and reliable with some new technological challenges. The launch of Hayabusa2 is planned at the end of 2014, arriving at the asteroid in the middle of 2018, and it comes back to the earth at the end of 2020. At present, the flight model is under manufacturing.
The paper presents the design of the landing strategy, during close proximity operations of ESA's Asteroid Impact Mission. The target of the mission is the binary asteroid system 65803 Didymos and the objective of this work is to investigate design opportunities to land a small and passive probe on the smaller asteroid of the couple. The dynamics of the spacecraft in the proximity of the binary system is naturally modeled using a three-body problem formulation. The landing requirements are highlighted and a suitable strategy is selected, by conveniently exploiting three-body dynamics. Uncertainties in release and touch down conditions are modeled to guarantee the robustness of the chosen solution to achieve successful landing.
Initial Achievements of Hayabusa2 in Asteroid Proximity Phase
TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY FOR AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES, 2020
Hayabusa2 arrived at the asteroid Ryugu in June 2018, and as of April 2019, the mission succeeded in conducting two rovers landing, one lander landing, one spacecraft touchdown/sample collection and one kinetic impact operation. This paper describes the initial nine months of the asteroid proximity operation activity of the Hayabusa2 mission, and gives an overview of the achievements thus far. Some important engineering and scientific activities conducted synchronously with spacecraft operations in order to complete all planned operations in time against unexpectedly harsh environment of Ryugu are also described.