Hayabusa2 launched in December 2014 and rendezvoused with Ryugu four years later, collecting samples and returning them to Earth in 2020 to complete its primary objectives. Despite briefly entering a protective safe mode last year, the spacecraft has continued operating well and now pursues new science targets as part of its extended mission. Satoshi Tanaka of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency outlined the Torifune flyby in a presentation during the 35th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group on June 11.<\/p>\n
The flyby will bring Hayabusa2 within 1 to 10 kilometers of Torifune, an asteroid roughly 450 meters wide, as the spacecraft passes at 5.3 kilometers per second. “This is one of the closest asteroid encounters ever attempted by a mission of this class,” Tanaka said. “By combining advanced navigation techniques and the engineering capabilities of Hayabusa2, we have made it possible to achieve a flyby at a distance of only about 1 kilometer.”<\/p>\n
Torifune was first given the designation 2001 CC21 before being named for a deity from Japanese mythology. Tanaka said the asteroid appears somewhat similar to Itokawa, the target of Japan’s first Hayabusa mission, but little is known for certain about it. Patrick Michel, principal investigator for the European Space Agency’s Hera mission and a member of the Hayabusa2 science team, said the operation carries risk. “It’s still a risky operation, because they had not planned for this,” Michel said, noting high uncertainty about the asteroid’s size. He said Torifune could be a contact binary, in which two bodies came together at low velocities, like the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth or comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. “We’re going to discover what it looks like. And each time we have seen a new asteroid, we’ve been surprised,” Michel said. “We’re going to discover another beast to put in the zoo of asteroids.”<\/p>\n
The very high velocity of the encounter means limited time to collect images and data, but the rapid pass will also serve as a test of a reconnaissance concept. Such rapid reconnaissance could determine the physical properties of an asteroid before any intercept of a threatening object with a kinetic impact, as demonstrated by NASA’s DART mission in 2022. The flyby therefore adds to both planetary science and planetary defense.<\/p>\n
The Torifune flyby is intended as one step in a longer campaign rather than the spacecraft’s final act. Tanaka said Hayabusa2 has remained active during its deep space cruise phase, making observations of the zodiacal light and exoplanets. The ultimate goal of the extended mission is to visit the tiny asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031, which would be the smallest asteroid ever visited at just 11 meters wide, with the spacecraft potentially attempting a landing on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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