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Space Topics: Hayabusa (MUSES-C)Science and Technology InstrumentsSince Hayabusa is both a science and engineering technology mission, it is equipped with various state-of-the-art instruments, including: Asteroid Multiband Imaging Camera (AMICA) is a camera system that is being used to map surface morphology, including surface features to 1-meter resolution, determine spin state, colors, size, shape, volume, and rotation characteristics; search for possible asteroid satellites and dust rings; establish a global map of surface features and colors; reveal history of impacts from other asteroid and comet fragments; determine optical parameters of regolith particles using polarization degree vs. phase curve at large phase angles; map mineralogical composition of asteroid and identify rock types present; and determine most likely meteorite analog for composition of asteroid. Autonomous Navigation System is a new technology developed in Japan for this and future sample return missions. It enables the spacecraft to approach an asteroid or target far away without human guidance. It works by measuring the distance to the asteroid with the Optical Navigation Camera and using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR). Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a laser altimeter instrument that is being used to determine accurate shape and mass determinations, as well as rotation speed, for the asteroid, and provide maps of the asteroid's surface with a maximum resolution of about 1-meter, as well as measure chemical composition and concentration. With the Optical Navigation Camera, LIDAR is used to "inform the Autonomous Navigation System. Near-Infrared Spectrometer is being used to map mineralogical composition of the asteroid and provide main evidence for rock types present on surface at scales as small as 20 meters, characterize surface heterogeneity, and together with elemental composition measurements provided by XRS and color imagery from camera, the near-IR spectrometer will provide link between this asteroid and a meteorite type. X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) maps the major elemental composition of the surface as the asteroid rotates under the spacecraft, as well as determines the major elemental composition at localized areas during asteroid approach phases, and measures surface composition accurately enough to establish relationship between asteroids and meteorites and identify the type of meteorite to which the asteroid is linked. It will also provide elemental abundance maps to investigate the inhomogeneity of the regolith. Minerva Mini-Lander A small coffee-can-sized surface hopper, Minerva will be dropped slowly onto the asteroid's surface, in a soft landing more like a docking than a hard landing. For 1 to 2 days, it will slowly leap about the asteroid taking surface temperature measurements and high-resolution images with each of its three miniature cameras and relaying the data to Hayabusa whenever the two spacecraft are in sight of each other. If successful, Minerva will be the first “space hopper” in action. Hoppers have been included only once before, on the failed Soviet Phobos missions, and never saw actual use. |
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