SpaceWire-based thermal-infrared imager system for asteroid sample return mission HAYABUSA2

Abstract

A thermal-infrared (TIR) imager system is developed for HAYABUSA2, which is planned to be launched in 2014 and aims at sample-return from a C-class near-Earth asteroid 162173 (1999JU3) considered to contain organic or hydrated materials. The system consists of a TIR imager and digital electronics, which are used not only for the scientific investigation of physical properties of the asteroid surface, but also for the assessment of landing site selection and safe descent operation onto the asteroid surface with in situ measurement. TIR adopts an uncooled bolometer. Image operations such as multiple images summation, dark image subtraction, and the compensation of dead pixels are processed onboard. A processing module is connected to sensor interfaces through SpaceWire in order to provide deterministic processing time. Data compression is also provided to reduce the restriction of transmission time, which provides the equivalent compression ratio as JPEG2000 in 1/30 processing time in average. A high-speed data recorder is connected through SpaceWire in order to record TIR data in parallel with other sensor data. The modularity of SpaceWire enables us to use these as built devices for TIR and inherits the same design as the long-wavelength infrared imager developed for the Venus climate orbiter Akatsuki.