Hayabusa Mk2
Proposed JAXA sample-return mission to a primitive NEO.
Hayabusa Mk2 was a proposed JAXA space mission to visit a small asteroid and return a sample to Earth. It was intended as the follow-on to the Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions, with the latest proposal targeting the dormant comet 4015 Wilson–Harrington. The mission was also considered as a joint JAXA-ESA project under the name Marco Polo from 2007 to 2010.
Quick Facts
- Target (latest proposal)
- dormant comet 4015 Wilson–Harrington (1979 VA)
- Proposed launch year
- 2018
- Agency
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Facts from the source article.
Scientific objectives
The principal scientific objective of Hayabusa Mk2 was to return unaltered materials from a near-Earth object, enabling laboratory analyses that cannot be performed by a robotic spacecraft. These include dating major events in a sample's history, such as the interval between nucleosynthesis and agglomeration, crystallization age, and duration of exposure to cosmic radiation. The mission aimed to determine the physical and chemical properties of the target body as representative building blocks of the terrestrial planets, and to identify major events like agglomeration, heating, and aqueous alteration that influenced its history. Scientists also sought to determine elemental and mineralogical properties and their variations with geological context, search for pre-solar material unknown in meteoritic samples, and investigate the nature and origin of organic compounds on the target. The mission would help understand the role of minor body impacts in the origin and evolution of life on Earth, as small bodies preserve clues to the chemical mixture from which planets formed 4.6 billion years ago. Exobiological scenarios suggest carbonaceous chondrite matter may have delivered organic molecules to the early Earth, and collisions of NEOs pose a hazard to life.
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a proposed ESA-JAXA space mission to visit a small primitive asteroid and return a sample to Earth. It was proposed to ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 program in June 2007 and selected for an assessment study in November 2007. The mission planned to leverage heritage from European missions Huygens and Philae and the Japanese Hayabusa mission. Possible targets included the C-type asteroid 1999 JU3, other C-type asteroids such as 1989 UQ, primitive D and T types 2001 SG286 and 2001 SK162, the dormant comet 4015 Wilson–Harrington, and the binary C-type asteroid 1996 FG3. A baseline scenario to 1999 JU3 involved a Soyuz launcher carrying a mother spacecraft possibly with a lander, sampling device, re-entry capsule, and scientific payloads. The lander would soft-land, anchor, and perform in-situ measurements of surface and subsurface materials. Samples would be collected using one or complementary techniques. After sampling, the mother spacecraft would return to Earth and release the capsule for high-speed re-entry, to be retrieved at a low to mid-latitude uninhabited area in the Northern Hemisphere. After space quarantine and sterilization, samples would be characterized in a dedicated curation facility before distribution to scientists. The proposal was supported by over 400 scientists worldwide and prepared by a joint European-Japanese group.
Technology demonstrators for Hayabusa Mk2
Several technology test missions were proposed to reduce risk for Hayabusa Mk2, as some planned technologies had never been tested in outer space. DESTINY (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for INterplanetary voYage) was a technology demonstration satellite and a candidate for JAXA's second Competitively-Chosen Medium-Sized Focused Mission, following SLIM. If selected, DESTINY would launch in 2020 on an Epsilon rocket, with one main objective being to test the μ20 ion engine intended for Hayabusa Mk2 and Solar-D missions. Another demonstrator, DASH-II, was proposed within JAXA's Space Exploration Center (JSPEC) to test the thermal protection system for the Hayabusa Mk2 re-entry capsule, which would enter Earth's atmosphere at over 14 km/s with an estimated aerodynamic heat load of at least 20 MW/m². DASH-II was the successor to the unsuccessful DASH project launched in 2002. It was supposed to launch as a subpayload on the same H-IIA rocket as the cancelled ASTRO-G spacecraft in 2013; as of 2008, DASH-II was in Pre-Phase-A working group activities.
Payloads
The mother spacecraft's scientific payloads were to include a high-resolution imaging system, visible and infrared and mid spectrometers, a LIDAR, and a dust monitor, operated during approach, hovering, and descent for science, landing site selection, and spacecraft safety. The lander would carry its own payload for in-situ measurements, such as a close-up camera, panoramic camera, electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, volatile detector, microbalance, and mass spectrometer, operated through automatic or Earth-commanded sequences. These instruments would characterize the location and surface environment at the sampling site. The mission's scientific objectives would be attained by combining these characterizations with analyses of returned samples, covering morphological surface properties, environmental conditions, mass and density, mineralogical composition, surface and subsurface mineralogy and thermophysical properties, elemental composition and distribution, internal structure, global topography, and volatile abundance.
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