Europlanet Science Congress 2021
Virtual meeting
13 – 24 September 2021
Europlanet Science Congress 2021
Virtual meeting
13 September – 24 September 2021
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 15, EPSC2021-877, 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-877
European Planetary Science Congress 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Overview and Science of DESTINY+

Tomoko Arai1 and the DESTINY+ Team*
Tomoko Arai and the DESTINY+ Team
  • 1Planetary Exploration Research Center (PERC), Chiba Institute of Technology (ChiTech), Chiba, Japan
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract

DESTINY+ (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for INterplanetary voYage with Phaethon fLyby and dUst Science) was selected in 2017 as a mission for JAXA/ISAS small class program. It will be launched in 2024 by an Epsilon S rocket and flyby Phaethon in January, 2028. It is a joint mission of technology demonstration and scientific observation. The engineering mission is led by ISAS/JAXA and the science mission is led by PERC, Chiba Inst. of Technology (ChiTech). It will test high performance electric propelled vehicle technology and high-speed flyby of asteroid (3200) Phaethon and possibly asteroid 2005UD, a likely break-up body from Phaethon, as an extended mission. Engineering challenges include an up-close encounter at a distance of 500 km from Phaethon with radio-optical hybrid navigation guidance and control, and autonomous imaging based on optical information for target tracking during a high-speed flyby of about 35km/sec. The science goal is to understand the nature and origin of cosmic dust brought onto the Earth, in the context of exogenous contribution of carbon and organics for possible prebiotic seeds of the terrestrial life. Phaethon is a parent body of Geminid meteor shower, and thus a known source to periodically provide dust to the Earth, via its dust stream. The science objectives are two folded: (1) in-situ analyses of velocity, arrival direction, mass and chemical composition of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles around 1 au, the dust trail, and nearby Phaethon, and (2) flyby imaging of Phaethon to study its geology, for understanding dust ejection mechanism of active asteroid and the surface feature and composition which are affected by extensive solar heating. Science payloads include a panchromatic, telescopic camera with a tracking capability (TCAP), a visible-NIR multi-band camera with four bands of 425, 550, 700, 850 nm (MCAP), and a dust analyzer (DDA), which is an upgrade version of Cassini Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). While the two cameras are developed by PERC/Chitech, DDA is developed by Univ. of Stuttgart, as an international collaboration with DLR. Ground calibration for DDA is being performed with German/Japanese joint efforts. International observation campaign for Phaethon was conducted in December 2017, and that of asteroid 2005 UD in October, 2018. Also, international observation campaign for stellar occultation by Phaethon was performed in 2019. Here, we present the current status and science of DESTINY+ mission.

DESTINY+ Team:

Tomoko Arai, Masanori Kobayashi, Ko Ishibashi, Hiroshi Kimura, Takayuki Hirai, Peng Hong, Takaya Okamoto, Manabu Yamada, Hiroki Senshu, Koji Wada, Fumi Yoshida, Ralf Srama, Harald Krüger, Sho Sasaki, Hikaru Yabuta, Masateru Ishiguro, Tomohiko Sekiguchi, Motoo Ito, Junichi Watanabe, Takashi Ito, Takafumi Ootsubo, Shinsuke Abe, Katsuhiko Ohtsuka, Seiichiro Urakawa, Tomoki Nakamura, Shiho Kobayashi, Takahiro Hiroi, Shuichi Matsuura, Akira Yamaguchi, Mutsumi Komatsu, Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, Naru Hirata, Hiroshi Demura, Takashi Mikouchi, Shogo Tachibana, Tomokatsu Morota, Goro Komatsu, Takaaki Noguchi, Hirohide Kaneda, Hajime Yano, Toshifumi Yanagisawa, Hirohisa Kurosaki, Aiko Nakato, Makoto Yoshikawa, Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, Naoya Ozaki, Takayuki Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Toyota, Kazutaka Nishiyama, Hiroshi Imamura, Takeshi Takashima

How to cite: Arai, T. and the DESTINY+ Team: Overview and Science of DESTINY+, European Planetary Science Congress 2021, online, 13–24 Sep 2021, EPSC2021-877, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-877, 2021.