Target marker deployment strategies for Hayabusa2 extended mission to fast rotator 1998 KY26

The Hayabusa2 extended mission, named Hayabusa2# (SHARP: Small Hazardous Asteroid Reconnaissance Probe), is planned to rendezvous with the fast-rotating asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. Hayabusa2# will be the first ever mission to rendezvous with such a rapidly rotating small asteroid, posing significant challenges because of its distinctive dynamical environment. In this paper, we investigate potential target marker (TM) deployment strategies, for both landing and orbiting scenarios, to maximize science acquisition. In particular, we model the surface and orbital environments to identify feasible target market operations and present landing site selection strategies and candidate insertion orbits considering realistic deployment errors. The TM is one of the only two remaining deployable payloads, and therefore, can play a critical role during the extended mission phase. Our results show that surface operations can be extremely challenging whereas orbit operations could help us gain valuable information on the asteroid’s gravity field. Overall, this research contributes to the exploration and characterization of extremely small bodies specifically through the use of artificial objects, in this case the target marker.