ASSERT for Mascot / Hayabusa 2 mission

Description

ASteroid Sounding Experiment by Radiowaves Transmission is a radar to instrument the Mascot lander which is proposed in the frame future Hayabusa 2 Jaxa mission. This low frequency radar is a unique opportunity to sound the internal structure of the target. It is to achieve the tomography both in transmission and in reflexion of the asteroid in order to determine its fracturing, its stratigraphy and its heterogeneity at different scale for better understanding of accretion and evolution phenomena's. This talk reviews all the aspect of the proposed experiment. The problematic of the C-type asteroid is reviewed in order to demonstrate the interest of the low frequency radar sounding. The Consert/Rosetta-like bistatic experiment solution is proposed to fulfil the low mass budget constraints. The concept of this tomography between the lander and the orbiter is detailed including its different operation modes, the measurement, the inversions and the addressed NEA questions. In a second time, we present the design of our instrument. These review starts from the existing Consert instrument on board of the Rosetta and Philae probes. The main instrument trade off are presented from the mission characteristics and the proposed target. The electronics are revisited and the budgets are updated. So, some antenna designs are proposed for both lander and orbiter spacecrafts. To end a preliminary experiment budget is shown.

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