Session
Technical Session III: Year in Review I
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
On October 3rd, 2018 and after a 4-year travel into space attached to the Japanese probe Hayabusa-2, the German French probe MASCOT, the size of a big shoebox, landed on the asteroid Ryugu. The objective was to study in-situ the structure of the asteroid. The article focuses on the communication subsystem of the mission providing a radiofrequency link between Hayabusa-2 and MASCOT. This subsystem, including the transceivers, the harness, the antennae and the onboard intelligence has been at the heart of a multinational team to provide the best conditions for MASCOT data to be transmitted. The first part of the article details the overall communication system architecture and validation before landing, including some validation operations during cruise. A second part presents the analysis of the communication system telemetry during the mission, from separation to the very end, giving an understanding of the mission events sequence.
MASCOT: Communications With a Small Probe on Ryugu Asteroid
Utah State University, Logan, UT
On October 3rd, 2018 and after a 4-year travel into space attached to the Japanese probe Hayabusa-2, the German French probe MASCOT, the size of a big shoebox, landed on the asteroid Ryugu. The objective was to study in-situ the structure of the asteroid. The article focuses on the communication subsystem of the mission providing a radiofrequency link between Hayabusa-2 and MASCOT. This subsystem, including the transceivers, the harness, the antennae and the onboard intelligence has been at the heart of a multinational team to provide the best conditions for MASCOT data to be transmitted. The first part of the article details the overall communication system architecture and validation before landing, including some validation operations during cruise. A second part presents the analysis of the communication system telemetry during the mission, from separation to the very end, giving an understanding of the mission events sequence.
