Abstract
Hayabusa2 is a Japanese asteroid explorer which aims to get some fragments from the C-type asteroid “Ryugu” and bring them back to the Earth. It was launched in December 2014 and arrived at the target asteroid at the end of June 2018 after 3.5 years’interplanetary cruise. The authors developed two tiny twin rovers for Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The rovers had a fully autonomous capability to move over the microgravity environment of asteroid surface by hopping. The rovers were deployed onto the Northern hemisphere of the target asteroid on 21 September 2018 at the altitude of approximately 50 meters above the surface. Both rovers made autonomous surface explorations by hopping as planned. This paper summarises the mobile system of MlNERVA-ll rovers as well as the actual hopping behaviors of the rovers on the asteroid surface.
