Operation of MINERVA rover in Hayabusa Asteroid Mission Institute of Space and Astronautical Science(ISAS)/JAXA

摘要

Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAXA of Japan has launched the spacecraft "Hayabusa" in 2003, heading for one of the smallest asteroid in our solar system called "Itokawa." After more than two years' interplanetary cruise, it was successful in the rendezvous with the target asteroid in September 2005. The spacecraft precisely observed the asteroid from the vicinity of the asteroid for two months and then tried to land on the surface in order to get some fragments from the asteroid, which will be brought back to the' Earth. The authors have installed a experimental small rover named "MINERVA" into the spacecraft. It was supposed to make a world first surface exploration after having been deployed onto the surface from the mother spacecraft. MINERVA is the smallest spacecraft with a weight of 591 [g] and a dimension of about 10[cm] in size. In this small body, it is equipped with a moving ability over the micro-gravity environment on the asteroid and a few science instruments to characterize the surface. MINERVA was deployed in November 2005. It could not reach at the asteroid because the deployment was not done at the good timing. Thus it became a artificial solar satellite and the surface exploration was not conducted. It survived at least for 18 hours after the deployment while the obtained data were transmitted to the Earth via the mother spacecraft. This paper describes the operation and the obtained data of MINERVA.