Summary of ground-based observation of asteroid Itokawa, and observation plan of next asteroid sample-return mission targets

Abstract

Before the rendezvous of Hayabusa spacecraft with the asteroid Itokawa, various ground-based observations of the asteroid had been performed and a lot of physical quantities about Itokawa were presumed. We summarize these results and verify how effective these results were for the Hayabusa mission. Furthermore, based on the verification result, it is considered how ground-based observation for the candidate asteroid of the next asteroid exploration mission should be advanced.