2006 Volume 22 Issue 1 Pages 1_32-1_41
The asteroid exploration spacecraft Hayabusa attempted to touch-down two times in November, 2005. The autonomous guidance and navigation capability is installed aboard the spacecraft, which collects the laser altimeter, laser range finders and navigation cameras information aboard and to estimate where the spacecraft is and to decide the path correction maneuvers toward the asteroid ITOKAWA by itself. The function programmed in Hayabusa includes the image processing designed to detect an artificial target marker location. This paper presents how the touch-down events were carried out by showing the flight results along with the detail of onboard GNC(Guidance, Navigation and Control) system.
