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Hayabusa2 is a Japanese interplanetary probe launched on December 3, 2014, which arrived at asteroid Ryugu on June 27, 2018. During its stay around Ryugu, it completed several challenging operations, including deploying two rovers and a lander, conducting two sample collections, and performing a kinetic impact experiment. The kinetic impact experiment was one of the biggest challenges of the Hayabusa2 mission. Investigating the physical and chemical properties of asteroid internal materials and structures is an important scientific objective for small body exploration. We developed a small kinetic impactor called the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor) to achieve this objective. The SCI is a compact kinetic impactor designed to remove a small region of Ryugu's uppermost surface regolith layer and create an artificial crater. The spacecraft deployed the SCI on April 5, 2019, successfully creating an artificial crater with a diameter of 15 m. This paper describes the operational planning of the kinetic impact experiment and summarizes the operation results. • Sub-surface exploration is a new challenge for Hayabusa2. • A small kinetic impactor was developed to create an artificial crater. • The impactor created a 15m-class artificial crater on April 5, 2019. • The crater formation process was observed by a deployable camera. • The sub-surface sampling was completed during the touchdown operation on July 11, 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Synchronous two-way laser ranging in deep space was successful for the first time. • A laser altimeter aboard spacecraft Hayabusa2 was used as an optical transponder. • The longest distance was 6.46 million km. In December 2020, synchronous two-way laser ranging in deep space was successful for the first time over distances up to 6.46 million km. A laser altimeter aboard spacecraft Hayabusa2 was used as an optical transponder, detecting laser pulses emitted from the ground stations on Earth and retransmitting the pulses from the spacecraft to the ground. These retransmitted pulses were successfully detected at the ground station. The experiment was conducted as a demonstration of the deep-space laser ranging. The repetition frequency of the onboard instrument was limited to 0.5 Hz, and there was a lot of background noise because the experiments were carried out in daytime on the ground. Nevertheless, laser detection on the ground was still possible due to the high time-correlation between the detected and the predicted in the presence of random noise. Procedures similar to satellite laser ranging were applied to create residuals by subtracting the orbit predictions of the spacecraft from the observed round-trip time. Furthermore, some of the transponder return pulses were uniquely identified, where the time coherence of the measurements had been recovered from the telemetry data of the laser altimeter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 was launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on December 3rd, 2014. The primary mission of the spacecraft is to sample pieces of the asteroid and return it to Earth for more advanced scientific analysis on the Earth. After three-year cruise phase, Hayabusa2 finally arrived at the asteroid Ryugu on June 28, 2018, and mission operations started. Hayabusa2 carries multiple rovers, separates them to land on the asteroid surface. One of these rovers, called MASCOT, was developed under the international cooperation between Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR) and Center National d'études Spatiales (CNES). This rover was planned to be separated to land on the surface of the asteroid and planned to perform several missions on the asteroid surface. In order to support these missions, the mother ship Hayabusa2 was requested to separate this rover at a very low altitude about 50 ​m, and to hover about 3 ​km after separation to achieve a reliable communication link with MASCOT. On October 2–5, 2018, we performed the operation for MASCOT release. In this paper, we introduce the flight results of the entire operation for the MASCOT release. The asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 carries multiple rovers, separates them to land on the asteroid surface. One of these rovers, called MASCOT, was developed under the international cooperation between DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt) and CNES (Center national d'études spatiales). Flying MASCOT and its shadow taken by navigation camera of Hayabusa2 © JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, and AIST. [Display omitted] • Hayabusa2 carries several rovers and one lander. • The lander, named MASCOT, was developed under the international cooperation between DLR and CNES. • Mission of MASCOT is to perform several science missions on the asteroid surface. • Hayabusa2 successfully delivered the MASCOT onto the asteroid surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]