2023 Volume 1 Article ID: 40
On July 11th, 2019, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft achieved its second touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu with a 0.6 m accuracy. The landing was accomplished based on the newly implemented Pin-Point Touchdown (PPTD) method. It was extended from the former Touchdown (TD) method established by the Hayabusa spacecraft. When changing the point of view, two TDs of Hayabusa2 are regarded as successful autonomous rendezvous-dockings (RVDs) against the artificial landmark in deep space more than 15 minutes of light time from the Earth. This paper proposes the Deep Space Orbital Transfer Vehicle (DS-OTV) concept inspired and driven by Hayabusa2 technology to economically support various future deep space missions. The DS-OTV usually stays in a parking orbit at the boundary of the Earth system and possesses autonomous RVD functionality against the visiting deep space probes. The OTV provides the following services: (1) refueling of chemical bipropellant to the probe enabling it to transfer into the interplanetary trajectory by itself, (2) insertion of the visiting probe into the high-C3 Earth free-return orbit. This paper introduces the background and the concept of the OTV, and the simulation-based feasibility analysis results applying the Hayabusa2's PPTD method to the DS-OTV mission.
