Asteroid (162173) Ryugu is the target object of Hayabusa2, an asteroid exploration and sample return mission led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ground-based observations indicate that Ryugu is a C-type near-Earth asteroid with a diameter of less than 1 km, but the knowledge of its detailed properties is still very limited. This paper summarizes our best understanding of the physical and dynamical properties of Ryugu based on remote sensing and theoretical modeling. This information is used to construct a design reference model of the asteroid that is used for formulation of mission operations plans in advance of asteroid arrival. Particular attention is given to the surface properties of Ryugu that are relevant to sample acquisition. This reference model helps readers to appropriately interpret the data that will be directly obtained by Hayabusa2 and promotes scientific studies not only for Ryugu itself and other small bodies but also for the Solar System evolution that small bodies shed light on.
@article{arxiv.1804.03734,
title = {Asteroid Ryugu Before the Hayabusa2 Encounter},
author = {Koji Wada and Matthias Grott and Patrick Michel and Kevin J. Walsh and Antonella M. Barucci and Jens Biele and Jürgen Blum and Carolyn M. Ernst and Jan T. Grundmann and Bastian Gundlach and Axel Hagermann and Maximilian Hamm and Martin Jutzi and Myung-Jin Kim and Ekkehard Kührt and Lucille Le Corre and Guy Libourel and Roy Lichtenheldt and Alessandro Maturilli and Scott R. Messenger and Tatsuhiro Michikami and Hideaki Miyamoto and Stefano Mottola and Akiko M. Nakamura and Thomas Müller and Larry R. Nittler and Kazunori Ogawa and Tatsuaki Okada and Ernesto Palomba and Naoya Sakatani and Stefan Schröder and Hiroki Senshu and Driss Takir and Michael E. Zolensky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.03734},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
62 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables. Submitted to Space Science Reviews, on 6 April 2018