Strategic Development on a New Generation Minor Body Exploration (1)

Abstract

Following up Hayabusa's heritage for asteroid sample return, the 'Minor Body Exploration Working Group' was officially approved this March, in order to design and propose a next generation minor body exploration mission by the end of FY 2006. At present, strategic developments include a sampling mechanism to retain stratigraphic information on a C-type asteroid surface and a rover system to observe the filed of occurrence of samples. This talk discusses its scientific objectives, possible mission targets, and status of such strategic developments.