Highly porous nature of a primitive asteroid revealed by thermal imaging

Okada, T.; Fukuhara, Tetsuya; Tanaka, Satoshi; Taguchi, Makoto; Arai, Takehiko; Senshu, Hiroki; Sakatani, Naoya; Shimaki, Y.; Demura, H.; Ogawa, Y.; Suko, K.; Sekiguchi, T.; Kouyama, T.; Takita, Jun; Matsunaga, Tsuneo; Imamura, Takeshi; Wada, Takehiko; Hasegawa, Susumu; Helbert, J.; Müller, Thomas; Hagermann, A.; Biele, Jens; Grott, M.; Hamm, Maximilian; Delbò, M.; Hirata, Naru; Hirata, Naoyuki; Yamamoto, Yukio; Sugita, Seiji; Namiki, Noriyuki; Kitazato, K.; Arakawa, Masahiko; Tachibana, Shogo; Ikeda, Hitoshi; Ishiguro, Masateru; Wada, Koji; Honda, Chikatoshi; Honda, Rie; Ishihara, Yoshiaki; Matsumoto, Koji; Matsuoka, Moe; Michikami, Tatsuhiro; Miura, Akira; Morota, Tomokatsu; Noda, Hirotomo; Noguchi, Rina; Ogawa, Kazunori; Shirai, Kei; Tatsumi, Eri; Yabuta, Hikaru; Yokota, Yasuhiro; Yamada, Manabu; Abe, Masanao; Hayakawa, Masahiko; Iwata, T.; Ozaki, Masanobu; Yano, Hajime; Hosoda, Saichi; Mori, Osamu; Sawada, Hirotaka; Shimada, Takanobu; Takeuchi, Hiroshi; Tsukizaki, Ryudo; Fujii, Atsushi; Hirose, Chikako; Kikuchi, Shota; Mimasu, Yuya; Ogawa, Naoko; Ono, Go; Takahashi, T.; Takei, Yuto; Yamaguchi, Tomohiro; Yoshikawa, Kunihiko; Terui, Fuyuto; Saiki, Takanao; Nakazawa, Shozo; Yoshikawa, Makoto; Watanabe, Sei‐ichiro; Tsuda, Yuichi

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2102-6

Cited by 119 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Hayabusa2 was launched on 3 December 2014 and arrived at the home position, 20 km earthward from Ryugu on 27 June 2018, and started remote sensing [19] using the optical navigation camera (ONC) [20], the laser altimeter (LIDAR) [21], the near infrared spectrometer (NIRS3) [22], and the TIR [1,4] to characterize the asteroid regarding its shape, spin state, geomorphology, spectral and thermal properties, geologic features, and gravity. The state and characteristics of Ryugu before and after arrival was basically consistent, but the asteroid shape is double top-shaped, and the surface is not covered with regolith but with boulders, and no flat and smooth terrains larger than 10 m scale were found for easy and safe landing [4,[19][20][21][22].…”

Section: Hayabusa2 and Asteroid 162173 Ryugumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such satellites or ejection have not been detected through the asteroid proximity phase, although some ejected flows were observed on the asteroid Bennu by the OSIRIS-Rex mission [24]. During a 3.5-years long cruise phase before arrival at Ryugu, images of deep sky backgrounds were taken several times per year as the dark frames for calibration, and the degradation of TIR was checked by comparing the temporal changes of its bias levels and the standard deviations as well as the number of bad pixels [4,23]. No substantial degradation has been found for five years after launch, so that the radiation tolerance of the TIR against the deep-space environment has been proven.…”

Section: Tir Observations Of Ryugu In Cruise and Approach Phasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The absence of a cooling system in the TIR contributes to its small, lightweight, and long-living design. The basic design of the sensor unit (TIR-S), the digital electronics (DE), and the onboard data processing algorithm is inherited from the Longwave Infrared Camera from the Akatsuki Venus mission [3], but the wide detection range of temperature, observation sequences and plans, programming of data processing, and calibration methods are optimized for the TIR [4]. As with a deep-space mission, the maximum downlink rate is limited to within 32 Kbps, and onboard processing is essential for its design [1,2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The formation and evolution processes will be indicated by the surface physical state of asteroids or planets, such as grain size, porosity, boulder abundance, and roughness, which are informed by thermal infrared observations. Thermophysical models of asteroids [5] have been investigated and constructed for interpreting those ground observations in thermal infrared wavelengths, but more detailed models are needed for quantitative analysis using data from a spacecraft [1,4]. (TIR-S).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hayabusa2 is the first mission to investigate the surface physical state of a small body through thermography [4]. In past planetary missions, thermal radiometry has been mainly conducted along the track of the orbiting spacecraft from a low circular orbit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermography of Asteroid and Future Applications in Space Missions

Okada

2020

Applied Sciences

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Featured Application: Activities in lunar, planetary, and asteroid science and exploration.Abstract: The Near-Earth Asteroid 162173 Ryugu is a C-type asteroid which preserves information about the ancient Solar System and is considered enriched in volatiles such as water and organics associated with the building blocks of life, and it is a potentially hazardous object that might impact Earth. Hayabusa2 is the asteroid explorer organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to rendezvous with the asteroid and collect surface materials to return them to Earth. Thermography has been carried out from Hayabusa2 during the asteroid proximity phase, to unveil the thermophysical properties of the primitive Solar System small body, which offered a new insight for understanding the origin and evolution of the Solar System, and demonstrated the technology for future applications in space missions. Global, local, and close-up thermal images taken from various distances from the asteroid strongly contributed to the mission success, including suitable landing site selection, safe assessment during descents into the thermal environments and hazardous boulder abundance, and the detection of deployable devices against the sunlit asteroid surface. Potential applications of thermography in future planetary missions are introduced.

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Section: Hayabusa2 and Asteroid 162173 Ryugumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tir Observations Of Ryugu In Cruise and Approach Phasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermography of Asteroid and Future Applications in Space Missions

Okada

2020

Applied Sciences

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Mineralogy of Returned Sample from C-Type Near-Earth Asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Tachibana

2023

Springer Mineralogy

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The smallest space miners: principles of space biomining

2022

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As we aim to expand human presence in space, we need to find viable approaches to achieve independence from terrestrial resources. Space biomining of the Moon, Mars and asteroids has been indicated as one of the promising approaches to achieve in-situ resource utilization by the main space agencies. Structural and expensive metals, essential mineral nutrients, water, oxygen and volatiles could be potentially extracted from extraterrestrial regolith and rocks using microbial-based biotechnologies. The use of bioleaching microorganisms could also be applied to space bioremediation, recycling of waste and to reinforce regenerative life support systems. However, the science around space biomining is still young. Relevant differences between terrestrial and extraterrestrial conditions exist, including the rock types and ores available for mining, and a direct application of established terrestrial biomining techniques may not be a possibility. It is, therefore, necessary to invest in terrestrial and space-based research of specific methods for space applications to learn the effects of space conditions on biomining and bioremediation, expand our knowledge on organotrophic and community-based bioleaching mechanisms, as well as on anaerobic biomining, and investigate the use of synthetic biology to overcome limitations posed by the space environments.

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Highly porous nature of a primitive asteroid revealed by thermal imaging

Cited by 119 publications

References 37 publications

Thermography of Asteroid and Future Applications in Space Missions

Thermography of Asteroid and Future Applications in Space Missions

Mineralogy of Returned Sample from C-Type Near-Earth Asteroid (162173) Ryugu

The smallest space miners: principles of space biomining

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