Hayabusa's touching-down to Itokawa - Autonomous guidance and navigation

Abstract

Hayabusa attempted to touch-down two times in November, 2005. They were successfully performed. The autonomous guidance and navigation capability is installed aboard the spacecraft. It collects the laser altimeter, laser range finders and navigation cameras information aboard and is designed to estimate where the spacecraft is and to decide the path correction maneuvers by itself. The function programmed includes the image processing designed to detect an artificial target marker location, with which the spacecraft is designed to approach to it. This paper presents how this difficult and sophisticated events were carried out, showing flight results along. Show more