Artist's rendering of the Chinese Chang'e 5-T1 spacecraft. The headlight-shaped object is the descent module that was successfully recovered after its circumlunar mission. Credit: chinaspacereport.com
<!-- image -->The second time it entered Earth's atmosphere, it deployed its parachute system at 10 kilometers altitude and safely touched down at 22:42 UT in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The descent vehicle was located just 5 minutes after touchdown. Yang Mengfeil, the "commander" of the lunar exploration program at CASC noted that "[f]rom what we have seen, the capsule is in good condition… and will lay a solid foundation for our future space program." Meanwhile, the service module of CE 5-T1 circled back into a high Earth orbit (540,000 × 600 kilometers) that slung it back towards the Moon, which it passed by on 23 November after two mid-course corrections. On 23 November, after reaching perilune and with the help of gravity assist from the Moon, the spacecraft headed to the Earth–Moon L2 Lagrange Point where it arrived on 27 November and entered into a Lissajous-type orbit at 20,000 × 40,000 kilometers with a period of 14 days. A little over a month later, at 15:00 UT on 4 January 2015, the service module left L2 after three circuits around it, and headed back toward the Moon. Six days later, at around 19:00 UT, the spacecraft returned back into lunar orbit with initial parameters of 200 × 5,300 kilometers with a period of 8 hours. Over the following two days, CE 5-T1 made three orbital corrections, ending up, by 11 January, in a 200-kilometer orbit. Once at the Moon, the spacecraft conducted two "virtual target" rendezvous tests in February and March 2015 to rehearse for the future CE-5 mission. Later, between 30 August and 2 September 2015, CE 5-T1 carried out an intensive photography mission, some of it at altitudes as low as 30 kilometers. The campaign was dedicated to identifying potential landing sites for the Chang'e 5 sample return mission. By 1 March 2016, the spacecraft had completed over 4,100 orbits around the Moon. The Chinese launch vehicle's upper stage carried a secondary payload called the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (LX0OHB-4M or 4M) prepared by the Germany company OHB System and managed by LuxSpace. The experiment, in honor of its OHB founder Manfred Fuchs (1938–2014) weighed 14 kilograms and contained two instruments, a radio beacon and a radiation dosimeter (provided by the Spanish company iC-Málaga). Last contact with the radio beacon was at 01:35 UT on 11 November 2014.
238 Hayabusa 2
Nation: Japan (10) Objective(s): asteroid rendezvous and sample return Spacecraft: Hayabusa 2, Rover1a, Rover1b, Rover2, MASCOT Spacecraft Mass: 600 kg Mission Design and Management: JAXA Launch Vehicle: H-IIA (no. F26) Launch Date and Time: 3 December 2014 / 04:22:04 UT Launch Site: Tanegashima / Area Y1
Scientific Instruments:
- near infrared spectrometer (NIRS3)
- thermal infrared imager (TIR)
- multiband imager (ONC-T)
- laser altimeter (LIDAR)
- separation camera (DCAM)
MASCOT:
- MicrOmega infrared microscope
- magnetometer (MAG)
- radiometer (MARA)
- wide-angle camera (CAM)
Results: Hayabusa 2 is a Japanese spacecraft on a six-year mission to rendezvous and land on a C-class asteroid, (162173) 1999 JU3, dispatch a series of landers and a penetrator, collect samples from it, and then return to Earth. The probe is an evolutionary follow-on to the Hayabusa (1) mission, launched in 2003, which had similar goals. The new mission is designed to be "more reliable and robust" and has several improved systems from its predecessor. Hayabusa 2's flight profile involves an Earth gravity-assist flyby in December 2015 before a rendezvous with its target asteroid in July 2018. At the asteroid, Hayabusa 2 will deploy a target marker (somewhat like a little beanbag filled with granular particles) to establish an artificial landmark, and then land on the planetary body.
Artist's concept of Hayabusa 2 collecting samples from asteroid 1999 JU3. Credit: JAXA
<!-- image -->Five of these target markers are carried aboard the spacecraft, as opposed to three on its predecessor. As it touches the surface multiple times, Hayabusa 2 will activate its SMP sampler mechanism which will release a small projectile to be shot into the ground so material is ejected that is collected by a "catcher." Additionally, Hayabusa 2 will deploy several passenger payloads, including the 10-kilogram MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout), a joint French-German lander that is capable of lifting off the asteroid and landing again to sample different areas with its suite of instruments. Hayabusa 2 will also carry the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor), a small explosive penetrator that will use a 2-kilogram pure copper "lump" (or a "liner") 30 centimeters in diameter that will be dropped to the surface of the asteroid at a velocity of 2 kilometers/second to make an artificial crater. A palm-size deployable camera (DCAM3) will observe the explosive impact of the SCI while the mother ship is positioned on the opposite side of the asteroid during the impact to protect it. Hayabusa 2 also carries three 1-kilogram rovers installed on MINERVA-II1 (which has Rover1A and Rover1B) and MINERVA-II2 (which has Rover2). They will take pictures and collect temperature data at various points. Once its mission is over, Hayabusa 2 will leave orbit around the asteroid in December 2019 and return to Earth a year later, in December 2020, for a reentry and recovery of the samples collected. After a successful launch, Hayabusa 2 and its fellow travelers left the Earth–Moon system on 6 December 2014, entering heliocentric orbit at 0.915 × 1.089 AU at 6.8° inclination to the ecliptic. It completed an initial period of checkout by 2 March 2015 and then began to move into its "cruising phase" while heading to asteroid 1999 JU3. Less than a year later, on 3 December 2015, Hayabusa 2 carried out an Earth flyby at a range of 3,090 kilometers over the Hawaiian islands. The encounter increased the spacecraft's velocity by about 1.6 kilometers/second to about 31.9 kilometers/second (relative to the Sun). The spacecraft, remaining in good health, performed its first major firing of its ion engines from 22 March to 5 May 2016, followed by a shorter (3.5 hour) firing on 20 May to adjust its trajectory.
239 PROCYON
Nation: Japan (11) Objective(s): asteroid flyby Spacecraft: PROCYON Spacecraft Mass: 65 kg Mission Design and Management: JAXA / University of Tokyo Launch Vehicle: H-IIA (no. F26) Launch Date and Time: 3 December 2014 / 04:22:04 UT Launch Site: Tanegashima / Area Y1
Scientific Instruments:
- optical telescope
- ion thrusters
Results: The PROCYON (Proximate Object Close Flyby with Optical Navigation) spacecraft, a low-cost "micro-spacecraft for deep space exploration" was designed to accomplish two goals: to demonstrate the successful use of a micro-spacecraft for deep space activity and to fly by an asteroid, 1999 JU3 (later renamed 162173 Ryugu). Launched at the same time as the Hayabusa 2 mission, PROCYON is accompanying the larger spacecraft to its own asteroid target, designated (185851) 2000 DP 107 (an asteroid that has its own moon). The plan for the mission was that it would pass within 50 kilometers of the target at a relative flyby velocity of 10 kilometers/second. The spacecraft, largely built from commercial off-the-shelf equipment is equipped with a micro-propulsion system named I-COUPS (Ion thruster and Cold-gas thruster developed for PROCYON) that uses ion engines and multiple cold gas thrusters fed from the same tank (containing 2.5 kilograms xenon at launch). After launch with Hayabusa 2 (see entry for that mission) into low Earth parking orbit, the H-IIA rocket's second stage fired again for 4 minutes, 1 second to accelerate the entire payload (Hayabusa 2, PROCYON, and ArtSat-2) into heliocentric orbit. While Hayabusa separated from the upper stage 3 minutes, 40 seconds after the burn was complete, PROCYON separated 15 minutes after Hayabusa and, like its compatriots, entered heliocentric orbit. University of Tokyo and JAXA announced that they had received the first signals from PROCYON at 00:51 UT on 3 December and that it was on its confirmed interplanetary trajectory. By 10 March 2015, the on-board ion engine had operated for 223 hours but then stopped functioning apparently due to a high voltage problem, thus potentially threatening both the planned Earth flyby on 3 December 2015 and the asteroid flyby on 12 May 2016. When it was clear that the engine could no longer be restarted, in May 2015, the asteroid flyby was abandoned. In the event, PROCYON flew past Earth on 3 December at a range of 2.7 million kilometers. Despite the loss of the asteroid flyby, PROCYON used its telescopic imager to return photos of Earth and the Earth–Moon system during its Earth flyby.
240 Shin’en 2
Nation: Japan (12) Objective(s): heliocentric orbit Spacecraft: Shin’en 2 Spacecraft Mass: 17 kg Mission Design and Management: Kagoshima University Launch Vehicle: H-IIA (no. F26) Launch Date and Time: 3 December 2014 / 04:22:04 UT Launch Site: Tanegashima / Area Y1
Scientific Instruments:
- dosimeter
Results: Shin'en 2 is a small satellite amateur radio payload—also given the Oscar designation of Fuji-Oscar 82—that carried a radio operating in the amateur UHF and VHF bands. During its mission, it was to simply downlink basic telemetry parameters (voltage, current, temperature, etc.) as well as data from the NASA-supplied radiation dosimeter. Radio enthusiasts could also uplink messages to the satellite. Once the satellite and its sister payloads were sent out to heliocentric orbit after launch, Shin'en 2 separated from the H-IIA second stage at 06:16 UT about 6 minutes, 40 seconds after the separation of Hayabusa 2. Contact with Shin'en 2 was established soon after, although the last reported transmission was on 14 December from 20:13 UT to 23:00 UT when the spacecraft was between 4.67 and 4.72 million kilometers from Earth. Like its sister spacecraft, Shin'en 2 flew by Earth on 4 December at 10:27 UT, at a range of about 5.71 million kilometers. Attempts to detect signals from Shin'en 2 at the time proved to be unsuccessful.
<!-- image -->Master Table of All Launch Attempts for Deep Space, Lunar, and Planetary Probes 1958–2016
Table 1.
| Official Name | Spacecraft / no. | Mass | Launch date / time | Launch place / pad | Launch vehicle / no. | Nation | Design and Operation | Objective | Outcome | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1959 | | | | | | | | | | | Soviet Space Rocket [Luna 1] | Ye-1 / 4 | 361.3 kg | 01-02-59 / 16:41:21 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Luna / B1-6 | USSR | OKB-1 | lunar impact | P | | Pioneer IV | — | 6.08 kg | 03-03-59 / 05:10:56 | CC / 5 | Juno II / AM-14 | USA | NASA / ABMA / JPL | lunar flyby | P | | [Luna] | Ye-1A / 5 | c. 390 kg | 06-18-59 / 08:08 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Luna / I1-7 | USSR | OKB-1 | lunar impact | F | | Second Soviet Space Rocket [Luna 2] | Ye-1A / 7 | 390.2 kg | 09-12-59 / 06:39:42 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Luna / I1-7b | USSR | OKB-1 | lunar impact | S | | Automatic Interplanetary Station [Luna 3] | Ye-2A / 1 | 278.5 kg | 10-04-59 / 00:43:40 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Luna / I1-8 | USSR | OKB-1 | lunar flyby | S | | [Pioneer, P-3] | P-3 / Able IVB | 168.7 kg | 11-26-59 / 07:26 | CC / 14 | Atlas Able / 1 | USA | NASA / AFBMD | lunar orbit | F | | 1960 | | | | | | | | | | | Pioneer V | P-2 / Able 6 | 43.2 kg | 03-11-60 / 13:00:07 | CC / 17A | Thor Able IV / 4 | USA | NASA / AFBMD | solar orbit | S | | [Luna] | Ye-3 / 1 | ? | 04-15-60 / 15:06:44 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Luna / I1-9 | USSR | OKB-1 | lunar flyby | F | | [Luna] | Ye-3 / 2 | ? | 04-19-60 / 16:07:43 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Luna / I1-9a | USSR | OKB-1 | lunar flyby | F | | [Pioneer, P-30] | P-30 / Able VA | 175.5 kg | 09-25-60 / 15:13 | CC / 12 | Atlas Able / 2 | USA | NASA / AFBMD | lunar orbit | F | | [Mars] | 1M / 1 | 480 kg | 10-10-60 / 14:27:49 | NIIP-5 / 1 | Molniya / L1-4M | USSR | OKB-1 | Mars flyby | F |