Abstract
Hayabusa2 deployed an artificial marker called Target Marker to conduct an autonomous touchdown on an asteroid. Due to the microgravity environment of an asteroid, the rebound of the payload tends to become large, resulting in difficulty in settling it in the desired area. To solve this problem, a TM is composed of a shell and a lot of inner balls, which dissipate the TM's energy by colliding with each other. Also, the TM has spikes attached to the shell to prevent horizontal motion on an asteroid's surface. Although past studies showed the effect of rebound mitigation, the effects of mass ratio and spike length, which are essential for designing a new TM, are not known. Therefore, this study investigates those aspects and proposes threshold mass ratio and spike length that can be used as design criteria. The results of this study can be used for the design of artificial payloads for future asteroid missions.
