Flight Result and Achievements of Hayabusa2 -Successful Sample Return from C-type Asteroid

Abstract

The asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 departed from Earth in December 2014, explored an ever-unexplored asteroid Ryugu for 17 months from June 2018 to November 2019, and returned to Earth in December 2020. In the asteroid-proximity operation, we acquired substantial scientific data through in-situ observations, and successfully completed various challenging operations, including landing and sample collection at two sites, surface mobile exploration by three landers/rovers, generation of an artificial crater with a diameter of 18 m, and orbit insertion of three objects into orbit around the asteroid. The sample-return capsule returned a 5.4 g sample, which far exceeded the target amount, and research institutes around the world have begun analyzing it. In this lecture, the flight history of Hayabusa2 and the engineering technology that was the premise for the geochemical results will be introduced, and future developments in sample return exploration will be looked at.