Modeling and analysis of Hayabusa2 touchdown

Abstract

The Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer mission focuses principally on the touchdown and sampling on near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Hayabusa2 successfully landed on its surface and ejected a projectile for sample collection on February 22, 2019. Hayabusa2 later landed near a crater formed by an impactor and executed the sampling sequence again on July 11, 2019. For a successful mission, a thorough understanding and evaluation of spacecraft dynamics during touchdown were crucial. The most challenging aspect of this study was the modeling of such spacecraft phenomena as the dynamics of landing on a surface with unknown properties. In particular, a Monte Carlo analysis was used to determine the parameters of the operational design for the final descent and touchdown sequence. This paper discusses the dynamical modeling of the simulation during the touchdown of Hayabusa2.