山本 幸生

The near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu is expected to contain volatile chemical species that could provide information on the origin of Earth's volatiles. Samples of Ryugu were retrieved by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We measured noble gas and nitrogen isotopes in Ryugu samples and found that they are dominated by presolar and primordial components, incorporated during Solar System formation. Noble gas concentrations are higher than those in Ivuna-type carbonaceous (CI) chondrite meteorites. Several host phases of isotopically distinct nitrogen have different abundances among the samples. Our measurements support a close relationship between Ryugu and CI chondrites. Noble gases produced by galactic cosmic rays, indicating a ~5 million year exposure, and from implanted solar wind record the recent irradiation history of Ryugu after it migrated to its current orbit.

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected samples from the surface of the carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu and brought them to Earth. The samples were expected to contain organic molecules, which record processes that occurred in the early Solar System. We analyzed organic molecules extracted from the Ryugu surface samples. We identified a variety of molecules containing the atoms CHNOS, formed by methylation, hydration, hydroxylation, and sulfurization reactions. Amino acids, aliphatic amines, carboxylic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and nitrogen-heterocyclic compounds were detected, which had properties consistent with an abiotic origin. These compounds likely arose from an aqueous reaction on Ryugu's parent body and are similar to the organics in Ivuna-type meteorites. These molecules can survive on the surfaces of asteroids and be transported throughout the Solar System.

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned to Earth from the asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 6 December 2020. One day after the recovery, the gas species retained in the sample container were extracted and measured on-site and stored in gas collection bottles. The container gas consists of helium and neon with an extraterrestrial 3He/4He and 20Ne/22Ne ratios, along with some contaminant terrestrial atmospheric gases. A mixture of solar and Earth’s atmospheric gas is the best explanation for the container gas composition. Fragmentation of Ryugu grains within the sample container is discussed on the basis of the estimated amount of indigenous He and the size distribution of the recovered Ryugu grains. This is the first successful return of gas species from a near-Earth asteroid.

The JAXA Hayabusa2 mission accomplished the formation of an artificial crater on the asteroid Ryugu. The aim of this work is to analyse the area surrounding the artificial crater and reveal spectral variability compared to the same region before the crater formation, to mineralogically and physically characterize the subsurface exposed material. The crater's investigation focused on the analysis of two regions corresponding to the inner part of crater (the pit and the crater wall/floor), two areas related to ejecta deposited close to the crater, two areas of ejecta moved far from the crater, and two external areas. Each area was investigated both before and after the crater formation, by the study of the photometrically corrected spectral parameters: the 1.9 μm reflectance, the near-infrared spectral slope, and the depth of the bands at 2.7 and 2.8 μm. The subsurface material of the post-crater areas shows deeper absorption bands, a decrease in reflectance, and a reddening in spectral slope with respect to the surface material of pre-crater areas. The subsurface regolith could have experienced a lower OH devolatilization due to space weathering and/or could be composed of finer dark grains than the surface layer. The ejecta reached distances of ~20 m from the impact point, mainly moving in the northern direction; nevertheless, a few ejecta also reached the south-eastern part of crater.

The Hayabusa2 spacecraft investigated the C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid (162173) Ryugu. The mission performed two landing operations to collect samples of surface and subsurface material, the latter exposed by an artificial impact. We present images of the second touchdown site, finding that ejecta from the impact crater was present at the sample location. Surface pebbles at both landing sites show morphological variations ranging from rugged to smooth, similar to Ryugu’s boulders, and shapes from quasi-spherical to flattened. The samples were returned to Earth on 6 December 2020. We describe the morphology of >5 grams of returned pebbles and sand. Their diverse color, shape, and structure are consistent with the observed materials of Ryugu; we conclude that they are a representative sample of the asteroid.

Context. JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission rendezvoused the Ryugu asteroid for 1.5 years to clarify the carbonaceous asteroids' record for Solar System origin and evolution. Aims. We studied the photometric behavior of the spectral parameters characterizing the near-infrared (NIR) spectra of Ryugu provided by the Hayabusa2/NIRS3 instrument, that is to say 1.9 µm reflectance, 2.7 and 2.8 µm band depths (ascribed to phyllosilicates), and NIR slope. Methods. For each parameter, we applied the following empirical approach: (1) retrieval of the equigonal albedo by applying the Akimov disk function (this step was only performed for the reflectance photometric correction); (2) retrieval of the median spectral parameter value at each phase angle bin; and (3) retrieval of the phase function by a linear fit. Results. Ryugu's phase function shows a steepness similar to Ceres, according to the same taxonomy of the two asteroids. Band depths decrease with increasing phase angle: this trend is opposite to that observed on other asteroids explored by space missions and is ascribed to the very dark albedo. NIR and visible phase reddening are similar, contrary to other asteroids, where visible phase reddening is larger: this could be due to surface darkness or to particle smoothness. Albedo and band depths are globally uncorrelated, but locally anticorrelated. A correlation between darkening and reddening is observed.

<title>Abstract</title>Ryugu is a carbonaceous rubble-pile asteroid visited by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Small rubble pile asteroids record the thermal evolution of their much larger parent bodies. However, recent space weathering and/or solar heating create ambiguities between the uppermost layer observable by remote-sensing and the pristine material from the parent body. Hayabusa2 remote-sensing observations find that on the asteroid (162173) Ryugu both north and south pole regions preserve the material least processed by space weathering, which is spectrally blue carbonaceous chondritic material with a 0–3% deep 0.7-µm band absorption, indicative of Fe-bearing phyllosilicates. Here we report that spectrally blue Ryugu’s parent body experienced intensive aqueous alteration and subsequent thermal metamorphism at 570–670 K (300–400 °C), suggesting that Ryugu’s parent body was heated by radioactive decay of short-lived radionuclides possibly because of its early formation 2–2.5 Ma. The samples being brought to Earth by Hayabusa2 will give us our first insights into this epoch in solar system history.

<title>Abstract</title>The thermal infrared imager (TIR) onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft performed thermographic observations of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu (1999 JU<inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$_3$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow /> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula>) from June 2018 to November 2019. Our previous reports revealed that the surface of Ryugu was globally filled with porous materials and had high surface roughness. These results were derived from making the observed temperature maps of TIR using a projection method onto the shape model of Ryugu as geometric corrections. The pointing directions of TIR were calculated using an interpolation of data from the SPICE kernels (NASA/NAIF) during the periods when the optical navigation camera (ONC) and the light detection and ranging (LIDAR) observations were performed. However, the mapping accuracy of the observed TIR images was degraded when the ONC and LIDAR were not performed with TIR. Also, the orbital and attitudinal fluctuations of Hayabusa2 increased the error of the temperature maps. In this paper, to solve the temperature image mapping problems, we improved the correction method by fitting all of the observed TIR images with the surface coordinate addressed on the high-definition shape model of Ryugu (SFM 800k v20180804). This correction adjusted the pointing direction of TIR by rotating the TIR frame relative to the Hayabusa2 frame using a least squares fit. As a result, the temperature maps spatially spreading areas were converged within high-resolved <inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$0.5^\circ$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>5</mml:mn> <mml:mo>∘</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula> by <inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$0.5^\circ$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>5</mml:mn> <mml:mo>∘</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula> maps. The estimated thermal inertia, for instance, was approximately 300<inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$\sim$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula>350 Jm<inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$^{-2}$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow /> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula>s<inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$^{-0.5}$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow /> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula>K<inline-formula><alternatives><tex-math>$$^{-1}$$</tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow /> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math></alternatives></inline-formula> at the hot area of the Ejima Saxum. This estimation was succeeded in case that the surface topographic features were larger than the pixel scale of TIR. However, the thermal inertia estimation of smooth terrains, such as the Urashima crater, was difficult because of surface roughness effects, where roughness was probably much smaller than the pixel scale of TIR.

Subsurface exploration is one of the most ambitious scientific objectives of the Hayabusa2 mission. A small device called small carry-on impactor (SCI) was developed to create an artificial crater on the surface of asteroid Ryugu. This enables us to sample subsurface materials, which will provide a window to the past. The physical properties of the resulting crater are also useful for understanding the internal structure of Ryugu. Accurate understanding of the crater and ejecta properties, including the depth of excavation of subsurface materials, requires accurate information on impact conditions. In particular, the impact angle is a critical factor because it greatly influences the size and shape of the crater. On April 5, 2019, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft deployed the SCI at 500 m of altitude above the asteroid surface. The SCI gradually reduced its altitude, and it shot a 2 kg copper projectile into the asteroid 40 min after separation. Estimating the position of the released SCI is essential for determining the impact angle. This study describes the motion reconstruction of the SCI based on the actual operation data. The results indicate that the SCI was released with high accuracy.

One of the primary goals of Hayabusa2 is to land on the asteroid Ryugu to collect its surface materials. The key for a successful touchdown is to find a promising landing site that meets both scientific and engineering requirements. Due to the limited availability of pre-arrival information about Ryugu, the landing site selection (LSS) must be conducted based on proximity observations over a limited length of time. In addition, Ryugu was discovered to possess an unexpectedly high abundance of boulders with an absence of wide and flat areas, further complicating the LSS. To resolve these problems, we developed a systematic and stepwise LSS process with a focus on the surface topography of Ryugu and the associated touchdown safety. The proposed LSS scheme consists of two phases: Phase-I LSS, a comprehensive survey of potential landing areas at the 100-m scale based on the global mapping of Ryugu, and Phase-II LSS, a narrowing-down process of the candidate landing sites at the 10-m scale using high-resolution images and a local terrain model. To verify the feasibility of a precision landing at the target site, we also investigated the landing dispersion via a Monte Carlo simulation, which incorporates the effect of the irregular surface gravity field. One of the major characteristics of the Hayabusa2 LSS developed in this study is the iterative feedback between LSS analyses on the ground and actual spacecraft operations near the target asteroid. Using the newly developed method, we chose a landing site with a radius of 3 m, and Hayabusa2 successfully conducted its first touchdown on February 21, 2019. This paper reports the methodology and results of the stepwise iterative LSS for the first Hayabusa2 touchdown. The touchdown operation results reconstructed from flight data are also provided, demonstrating the validity of the adopted LSS strategy.

TIR, the thermal infrared imager on Hayabusa2, acquired high-resolution thermal images of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu for one asteroid rotation period on August 1, 2018 to investigate the thermophysical properties of the asteroid. The surface temperatures of Ryugu suggest that the surface has a low thermal inertia, indicating the presence of porous materials. Thermophysical models that neglect or oversimplify surface roughness cannot reproduce the flat diurnal temperature profiles observed during daytime. We performed numerical simulations of a thermophysical model, including the effects of roughness on the diurnal brightness temperature, the predictions of which successfully reproduced the observed diurnal variation of temperature. The global thermal inertia was obtained with a standard deviation of 225 ± 45 J m−2 s−0.5 K−1, which is relatively low but still within the range of the value estimated in our previous study (Okada et al., Nature 579, 518–522, 2020), confirming that the boulders on Ryugu are more porous in nature than typical carbonaceous chondrites. The global surface roughness (the ratio of the variance of the height relative to a local horizontal surface length) was determined as 0.41 ± 0.08, corresponding to a RMS surface slope of 47 ± 5°. We identified a slightly lower roughness distributed along the equatorial ridge, implying a mass movement of boulders from the equatorial ridge to the mid-latitudes.

<title>Abstract</title> The thermal infrared imager (TIR) onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft performed thermographic observations of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu (1999 JU3) from June 2018 to November 2019. In this study, we performed a geometric correction for TIR images by making a one-to-one correspondence between the observed areas and the surface coordinates derived from a shape model of Ryugu. The pointing direction, which is an alignment direction of TIR, was adjusted by rotating the TIR frame relative to the base of the Hayabusa2 frame using a least-squares fit. This geometric correction allows us to identify observed local areas within one pixel, which corresponds to 5 m error in a 5 km altitude observation. The corrected temperature images projected onto the shape model were constructed. Hot temperature regions were found at the base of Ejima Saxum and Otohime Saxum, for instance. A simulation result indicates that multiple radiations from the surrounding terrains generate hot regions. The estimated thermal inertia of the base of Ejima Saxum as characteristic shape area is approximately 300 Jm -2 s -0.5 K -1 within the error bars of the observed temperature profile. This estimation is succeeded by performing the geometric correction in case that the surface topographic features are greater than the spatial resolution of the pixel. However, thermal inertia estimations of smooth terrains, such as the floor of Urashima crater, were difficult probably because of surface roughness effects. Our results suggest the necessity to develop a hybrid thermophysical model that implements large- and small-scale surface roughness.

Context. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been conducting observations of the asteroid (162173) Ryugu since June 2018. The Telescopic Optical Navigation Camera (ONC-T) onboard Hayabusa2 has obtained thousands of images under a variety of illumination and viewing conditions. Aims. Our objective is to examine and validate the camera calibration, derive a photometric correction for creating global albedo maps, and to interpret the photometric modeling results to characterize the surface of Ryugu. Methods. We observed (162173) Ryugu with the Gemini-South telescope, and combined these measurements with other published ground-based observations of the asteroid. The ground-based observations were compared with the data obtained by ONC-T in order to validate the radiometric calibration mutually. We used a combination of the Hapke disk-integrated and disk-resolved model equations to simultaneously analyze the combined ground- and spacecraft-based data. Results. The average spectrum of Ryugu was classified as Cb-type following the SMASSII taxonomy and C/F-type following the Tholen taxonomy based on spacecraft observations. We derived Hapke model parameters for all seven color filters, which allowed us to photometrically correct images to within an error of <10% for ~80% of the image pixels used in the modeling effort. Using this model, we derived a geometric albedo of 4.0 ± 0.5% (v band) for Ryugu. The average reflectance factor at the standard illumination condition was 1.87 ± 0.14% in the v band. Moreover we measured a phase reddening of (2.0 ± 0.7) × 10-3 μm-1 deg-1 for Ryugu, similar to that observed for the asteroid (101955) Bennu. Conclusions. The global color map showed that the general trend was for darker regions to also be redder regions, however there were some distinct exceptions to this trend. For example, Otohime Saxum was bright and red while Kibidango crater was dark and blue. The darkness and flatness of Ryugu's reflectance might be caused by a high abundance of organic materials.

The precise orbit of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft with respect to asteroid Ryugu is dynamically determined using the data sets collected by the spacecraft's onboard laser altimeter (LIght Detection And Ranging, LIDAR) and automated image tracking (AIT). The LIDAR range data and the AIT angular data play complementary roles because LIDAR is sensitive to the line-of-sight direction from Hayabusa2 to Ryugu, while the AIT is sensitive to the directions perpendicular to it. Using LIDAR and AIT, all six components of the initial state vector can be derived stably, which is difficult to achieve using only LIDAR or AIT. The coefficient of solar radiation pressure (SRP) of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft and standard gravitational parameter (GM) of Ryugu can also be estimated in the orbit determination process, by combining multiple orbit arcs at various altitudes. In the process of orbit determination, the Ryugu-fixed coordinate of the center of the LIDAR spot is determined by fitting the range data geometrically to the topography of Ryugu using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. Such an approach is effective for realizing the rapid convergence of the solution. The root mean squares of the residuals of the observed minus computed values of the range and brightness-centroid direction of the image are 1.36 m and 0.0270 degrees, respectively. The estimated values of the GM of Ryugu and a correction factor to our initial SRP model are 29.8 +/- 0.3 m(3)/s(2) and 1.13 +/- 0.16, respectively.

Carbonaceous (C-type) asteroids1 are relics of the early Solar System that have preserved primitive materials since their formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago. They are probably analogues of carbonaceous chondrites2,3 and are essential for understanding planetary formation processes. However, their physical properties remain poorly known because carbonaceous chondrite meteoroids tend not to survive entry to Earth's atmosphere. Here we report on global one-rotation thermographic images of the C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu, taken by the thermal infrared imager (TIR)4 onboard the spacecraft Hayabusa25, indicating that the asteroid's boulders and their surroundings have similar temperatures, with a derived thermal inertia of about 300 J m-2 s-0.5 K-1 (300 tiu). Contrary to predictions that the surface consists of regolith and dense boulders, this low thermal inertia suggests that the boulders are more porous than typical carbonaceous chondrites6 and that their surroundings are covered with porous fragments more than 10 centimetres in diameter. Close-up thermal images confirm the presence of such porous fragments and the flat diurnal temperature profiles suggest a strong surface roughness effect7,8. We also observed in the close-up thermal images boulders that are colder during the day, with thermal inertia exceeding 600 tiu, corresponding to dense boulders similar to typical carbonaceous chondrites6. These results constrain the formation history of Ryugu: the asteroid must be a rubble pile formed from impact fragments of a parent body with microporosity9 of approximately 30 to 50 per cent that experienced a low degree of consolidation. The dense boulders might have originated from the consolidated innermost region or they may have an exogenic origin. This high-porosity asteroid may link cosmic fluffy dust to dense celestial bodies10.

Precise information of spacecraft position with respect to target body is of importance in terms of scientific interpretation of remote sensing data. In case of Hayabusa2, a sample return mission from asteroid Ryugu, such information is also necessary for landing site selection activity. We propose a quick method to improve the spacecraft trajectory when laser altimeter range measurements and a shape model are provided together with crude initial trajectory, spacecraft attitude information, and asteroid spin information. We compared topographic features contained in the altimeter data with those expressed by the reference shape model, and estimated long-period trajectory correction so that discrepancy between the two topographic profiles was minimized. The improved spacecraft positions are consistent with those determined by image-based stereophotoclinometry method within a few tens of meters. With such improved trajectory, the altimeter ranges can be converted to Ryugu's topographic profiles that are appropriate for geophysical interpretation. We present a geophysical application that invokes possibility of impact-induced formation of the Ryugu's western bulge.

<jats:p><jats:italic>Context.</jats:italic> Starting from late June 2018, the JAXA asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa2 acquired a large quantity of resolved images and spectra of the surface of the asteroid (162173) Ryugu.</jats:p> <jats:p><jats:italic>Aims.</jats:italic> By studying the visible and near-infrared spectral behavior across the surface of Ryugu using a statistical analysis, we aim to distinguish spectral homogeneous groups and to detect the small heterogeneities. This allows us to better constrain the surface composition variations.</jats:p> <jats:p><jats:italic>Methods.</jats:italic> In order to isolate and interpret the difference in the asteroid surface spectral behavior, we applied the <jats:italic>G</jats:italic>-mode multivariate statistical analysis to a set of pixels containing information of (i) the visible ONC-T spectrophotometry, and (ii) the near-infrared NIRS3 spectra thereby obtaining automatic statistical clustering at different confidence levels.</jats:p> <jats:p><jats:italic>Results.</jats:italic> The analysis of both ONC-T and NIRS3 data allows us to highlight small spectral variations on the Ryugu surface. At a 3<jats:italic>σ</jats:italic> confidence level, only two groups are evident, while going down to 2<jats:italic>σ</jats:italic> more groups are obtained with differences in spectral slope and band depth.</jats:p> <jats:p><jats:italic>Conclusions.</jats:italic> The identified groups have been associated with main morphological surface features. The spectral slope variations that characterize the small groups obtained by ONC-T data analysis, are interpreted as a consequence of space weathering with the presence of more or less fresh material and/or the different grain sizes of the regolith. The variations found analyzing the NIRS3 data are attributed to slightly different contents of hydrated material and different regolith sizes. The distribution on the Ryugu surface of the groups obtained by the analysis of the two instruments indicates a clear spectral dichotomy both between the east and west, and the north and south hemispheres. Small sized regolith grains associated to the redder spectra seem concentrated in the southwestern part of the body.</jats:p>

The near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid 162173 Ryugu is thought to have been produced from a parent body that contained water ice and organic molecules. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft has obtained global multicolor images of Ryugu. Geomorphological features present include a circum-equatorial ridge, east-west dichotomy, high boulder abundances across the entire surface, and impact craters. Age estimates from the craters indicate a resurfacing age of [Formula: see text] years for the top 1-meter layer. Ryugu is among the darkest known bodies in the Solar System. The high abundance and spectral properties of boulders are consistent with moderately dehydrated materials, analogous to thermally metamorphosed meteorites found on Earth. The general uniformity in color across Ryugu's surface supports partial dehydration due to internal heating of the asteroid's parent body.

<jats:p>The near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, the target of Hayabusa2 sample return mission, is thought to be a primitive carbonaceous object. We report reflectance spectra of Ryugu’s surface acquired with the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on Hayabusa2, to provide direct measurements of the surface composition and geological context for the returned samples. A weak, narrow absorption feature centered at 2.72 μm was detected across the entire observed surface, indicating that hydroxyl (OH)-bearing minerals are ubiquitous there. The intensity of the OH feature and low albedo are similar to thermally- and/or shock-metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. There are few variations in the OH-band position, consistent with Ryugu being a compositionally homogeneous rubble-pile object, generated from impact fragments of an undifferentiated aqueously altered parent body.</jats:p>

月周回衛星「かぐや」に搭載されたハイビジョンカメラ(HDTV)は600以上の映像を取得した。広報目的に加え科学的な価値を見出すため、他の観測機器と同様に科学データとしてアーカイブを行った。HDTV映像は標準で30fpsの60秒間の1800枚のフレームから構成され、2倍速、4倍速、8倍速で撮像可能である。データアーカイブでは動画をフレームに分割して静止画として扱い、撮像時刻、動作モード、衛星位置、撮像範囲等を含め、総計100万枚以上の静止画にメタデータの付与を行った。ファイルフォーマットは天文学分野標準のFITSを用い、ディレクトリ構造やメタデータ記述は惑星探査データの標準規格であるPlanetary Data System (PDS)を用いた。FITSとPDSは親和性が高く2つの基準を満たすことが容易である。そのためHDTVデータは天文学分野と惑星探査分野の両方のツールを利用することが可能なハイブリッド仕様である。本発表ではHDTVデータの長期保存への取り組みをその背景と共に報告するものである。

The existence of lightning discharges in the Venus atmosphere has been controversial for more than 30 years, with many positive and negative reports published. The lightning and airglow camera (LAC) onboard the Venus orbiter, Akatsuki, was designed to observe the light curve of possible flashes at a sufficiently high sampling rate to discriminate lightning from other sources and can thereby perform a more definitive search for optical emissions. Akatsuki arrived at Venus during December 2016, 5 years following its launch. The initial operations of LAC through November 2016 have included a progressive increase in the high voltage applied to the avalanche photodiode detector. LAC began lightning survey observations in December 2016. It was confirmed that the operational high voltage was achieved and that the triggering system functions correctly. LAC lightning search observations are planned to continue for several years.

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. Hayabusa2, the first sample return mission to a C-type asteroid was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on December 3, 2014 and will arrive at the asteroid in the middle of 2018 to collect samples from its surface, which may contain both hydrated minerals and organics. The optical navigation camera (ONC) system on board the Hayabusa2 consists of three individual framing CCD cameras, ONC-T for a telescopic nadir view, ONC-W1 for a wide-angle nadir view, and ONC-W2 for a wide-angle slant view will be used to observe the surface of Ryugu. The cameras will be used to measure the global asteroid shape, local morphologies, and visible spectroscopic properties. Thus, image data obtained by ONC will provide essential information to select landing (sampling) sites on the asteroid. This study reports the results of initial inflight calibration based on observations of Earth, Mars, Moon, and stars to verify and characterize the optical performance of the ONC, such as flat-field sensitivity, spectral sensitivity, point-spread function (PSF), distortion, and stray light of ONC-T, and distortion for ONC-W1 and W2. We found some potential problems that may influence our science observations. This includes changes in sensitivity of flat fields for all bands from those that were measured in the pre-flight calibration and existence of a stray light that arises under certain conditions of spacecraft attitude with respect to the sun. The countermeasures for these problems were evaluated by using data obtained during initial in-flight calibration. The results of our inflight calibration indicate that the error of spectroscopic measurements around 0.7 µm using 0.55, 0.70, and 0.86 µm bands of the ONC-T can be lower than 0.7% after these countermeasures and pixel binning. This result suggests that our ONC-T would be able to detect typical strength (∼3%) of the serpentine absorption band often found on CM chondrites and low albedo asteroids with ≥ 4σ confidence.

© 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. Hayabusa2 is a sample return mission to the C-type asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Hayabusa2 was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in December 2014 and will arrive at the asteroid vicinity in the summer of 2018. Hayabusa2 will explore Ryugu for 1.5 years and return to the Earth in winter 2020. The entire flight period of Hayabusa2 is divided into 4 phases; (i)EDVEGA (launch to Earth gravity assist), (ii) Transfer (Earth gravity assist to asteroid arrival), (iii) Asteroid Proximity, (iv) Return (asteroid to Earth reentry). Different operations are required in each phase. Especially in the asteroid proximity phase, there are many critical events such as low-altitude observation, touching down, rover deployment and crater forming. There are some difficult characteristics in performing these critical operations from ground; navigation and guidance in the submeter accuracy against the microgravity environment of Ryugu, 40 minutes round-trip light time due to the 3.6 billion kilometers distance between Hayabusa2 and the Earth. We have developed a ground operation system to clear the characteristics. This paper presents the ground operation systems overview for Asteroid Proximity Operation to realize high quality operation for mission success.

© 2017 The Author(s). The first year (December 2015 to November 2016) of IR2 after Akatsuki's successful insertion to an elongated elliptical orbit around Venus is reported with performance evaluation and results of data acquisition. The single-stage Stirling-cycle cryo-cooler of IR2 has been operated with various driving voltages to achieve the best possible cooling under the given thermal environment. A total of 3091 images of Venus (1420 dayside images at 2.02 μm and 1671 night-side images at 1.735, 2.26, and 2.32 μm) were acquired in this period. Additionally, 159 images, including images of stars for calibration and dark images for the evaluation of noise levels, were captured. Low-frequency flat images (not available in pre-launch calibration data) have been constructed using the images of Venus acquired from near the pericenter to establish the procedure to correct for the IR2 flat-field response. It was noticed that multiple reflections of infrared light in the PtSi detector caused a weak but extended tail of the point-spread function (PSF), contaminating the night-side disk of Venus with light from the much brighter dayside crescent. This necessitated the construction of an empirical PSF to remove this contamination and also to improve the dayside data by deconvolution, and this work is also discussed. Detailed astrometry is performed on star-field images in the H-band (1.65 μm), hereby confirming that the geometrical distortion of IR2 images is negligible.

We provide an overview of data products from observations by the Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki, and describe the definition and content of each data-processing level. Levels 1 and 2 consist of non-calibrated and calibrated radiance (or brightness temperature), respectively, as well as geometry information (e.g., illumination angles). Level 3 data are global-grid data in the regular longitude-latitude coordinate system, produced from the contents of Level 2. Non-negligible errors in navigational data and instrumental alignment can result in serious errors in the geometry calculations. Such errors cause mismapping of the data and lead to inconsistencies between radiances and illumination angles, along with errors in cloud-motion vectors. Thus, we carefully correct the boresight pointing of each camera by fitting an ellipse to the observed Venusian limb to provide improved longitude-latitude maps for Level 3 products, if possible. The accuracy of the pointing correction is also estimated statistically by simulating observed limb distributions. The results show that our algorithm successfully corrects instrumental pointing and will enable a variety of studies on the Venusian atmosphere using Akatsuki data.

After the arrival of Akatsuki spacecraft of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at Venus in December 2015, the radio occultation experiment, termed RS (Radio Science), obtained 19 vertical profiles of the Venusian atmosphere by April 2017. An onboard ultra-stable oscillator is used to generate stable X-band downlink signals needed for the experiment. The quantities to be retrieved are the atmospheric pressure, the temperature, the sulfuric acid vapor mixing ratio, and the electron density. Temperature profiles were successfully obtained down to similar to 38 km altitude and show distinct atmospheric structures depending on the altitude. The overall structure is close to the previous observations, suggesting a remarkable stability of the thermal structure. Local time-dependent features are seen within and above the clouds, which is located around 48-70 km altitude. The H2SO4 vapor density roughly follows the saturation curve at cloud heights, suggesting equilibrium with cloud particles. The ionospheric electron density profiles are also successfully retrieved, showing distinct local time dependence. Akatsuki RS mainly probes the low and middle latitude regions thanks to the near-equatorial orbit in contrast to the previous radio occultation experiments using polar orbiters. Studies based on combined analyses of RS and optical imaging data are ongoing.

<p> 金星探査機「あかつき」によって取得されたデータのアーカイブを 2017年 7月に公開しました．本稿ではデータアーカイブの概要と今後のリリース予定について紹介します．</p>

In this paper, we evaluate other features different from the waveforms to classify seismic sources. Classification of sources of the deep moonquakes is an important issue for analyzing the focal mechanisms and the lunar deep structures. It was found that deep moonquakes that occur from the same source have similar waveforms. Some studies have been conducted to identify the deep moonquake sources using the waveform similarities. However, classifying some deep moonquakes using only the waveforms is difficult due to large noise and the small amplitude. If we could show that other features different from the waveforms are effective for classification of deep moonquakes, we can increase the number of classifiable moonquakes even if moonquakes include noise and small amplitude of the waveforms. Therefore, we use other features to classify deep moonquakes (position and velocity relative to the Earth, Sun, Jupiter, and Venus, as seen from the Moon). We apply these features to classify deep moonquakes that are not classified based on only waveforms, and it is useful to analyze the deep moonquake occurrence mechanisms. Our experiments showed that the position and velocity relation between the Moon and the Earth or Jupiter are effective for classification.

This paper investigates classification of deep moonquakes. Because some waveforms in deep moonquake contain much noise and small amplitude, estimating the source using conventional means is difficult. Therefore, we use machine learning based on waveform similarity to estimate the seismic sources of moonquakes. However, when the source of moonquake is unknown, the arrival time to the observation points is not determined. Therefore, cutting the S wave of a moonquake based on the arrival time is difficult. To classify waveforms for which the arrival time is not determined, we use long waveform from the start time of event, which might contain the arrival time. Moreover, we classify 43 unlabeled moonquakes observed by Apollo 12. As a result, labels were given with high classification probability for many moonquakes.

<p>「はやぶさ2」は，C 型小惑星リュウグウ（Ryugu）にランデブーし，母船からのリモートセンシング観測及び小型着陸機によるその場観測を行うとともに，最大3 回の表面物質サンプリングを行うこととなっている．サンプリング地点には，リュウグウそのものや母天体，さらには太陽系形成時の惑星集積過程と物質進化について，最大の情報を得られる場所を選定する必要があるが，選定のために必要となる情報はランデブー後取得されるリモートセンシング観測の結果を待たねばならない．そのため，限られた時間の中で小惑星の特徴を把握し，安全性と科学価値の評価（Landing Site Selection, LSS）を行う手順を確立しておくことは必須である．本稿では，はやぶさ2 プロジェクトが来年に迫ったLSS 本番に向けて実施したLSS 訓練について概説する．</p>

<p>We are planning to explore the caverns through the skylight holes on the Moon and Mars. The holes and their associated subsurface caverns are among the most important future exploration targets. The importance of the lunar and Martian holes and their associated caverns is categorized from two aspects: (1) fresh materials are easily observed and sampled there, and (2) the subsurface caverns provide a safe, quiet environment. The expectation of lunar and Martian hole and cavern exploration is increasing in Japan. We name the project as UZUME (Unprecedented Zipangu (Japan) Underworld of the Moon Exploration) whose name is after a Japanese mythology. The ultimate purpose of the UZUME project is to investigate how to expand human activity and survival in space and on extraterrestrial bodies. </p>

The balloon-borne telescope is a planetary observation method launching a telescope to the altitude of more than 30 km by a stratospheric balloon. To conduct the long duration observation, the flight gondola has to equip with a pointing control system in order to catch and keep the target star in the field of view of the telescope during the flight. This research aims to develop the high accuracy pointing control system and conduct the technology demonstration flight. The goal of the pointing control is set as 0.1 arcsec. This paper introduces the results of the ground test and simulation study to evaluate the performance of the pointing control system.

The Akatsuki spacecraft of Japan was launched on May 21, 2010. The spacecraft planned to enter a Venus-encircling near-equatorial orbit in December 7, 2010; however, the Venus orbit insertion maneuver has failed, and at present the spacecraft is orbiting the Sun. There is a possibility of conducting an orbit insertion maneuver again several years later. The main goal of the mission is to understand the Venusian atmospheric dynamics and cloud physics, with the explorations of the ground surface and the interplanetary dust also being the themes. The angular motion of the spacecraft is roughly synchronized with the zonal flow near the cloud base for roughly 20 hours centered at the apoapsis. Seen from this portion of the orbit, cloud features below the spacecraft continue to be observed over 20 hours, and thus the precise determination of atmospheric motions is possible. The onboard science instruments sense multiple height levels of the atmosphere to model the three-dimensional structure and dynamics. The lower clouds, the lower atmosphere and the surface are imaged by utilizing near-infrared windows. The cloud top structure is mapped by using scattered ultraviolet radiation and thermal infrared radiation. Lightning discharge is searched for by high speed sampling of lightning flashes. Night airglow is observed at visible wavelengths. Radio occultation complements the imaging observations principally by determining the vertical temperature structure.

The functions of KAGUYA(SELENE) Operation and Analysis Center (SOAC) are to operate three satellites: the main orbiter KAGUYA and two small satellites, Relay satellite OKINA and VRAD (VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) RADio source) satellite OUNA and to process, archive and provide mission data. SOAC has two main functional areas, "Tracking and Control system" and "Mission Operation and Data Analysis system." The former is for operational planning of bus and mission instruments including satellite navigation, and for the implementation of those plans and for the evaluation of satellite conditions. The latter is the system that processes, archives and provides mission data, and which principal investigators use to generate higher-level data products. Data up to the end of the operation in June 2009 have been processed and the total amount of Level-2 data products reaches about 50 TB. The data products have been released to the public since November 2009. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

The status of the X-ray spectrometer XRS onboard SELENE (Kaguya) is reported. The XRS is to map major elemental composition of lunar surface but is subject to instrumental trouble and unexpectedly faint solar activity. However it observed X-rays from the onboard standard sample excited by solar X-rays and non-solar X-ray events, maybe by particle events.

Amount of skin moisture of adult female's forearm epidermal was measured with two kinds of impedance sensors with different metrology, and the effectiveness to continuance observation for general health care was confirmed. Admittance skin moisture meter based on electrical skin admittance, was employed two-electrode method, a sinusoidal wave voltage (100kHz, 2V) was applied to the electrode. The measurement depth, that is, evaluated area is surface of stratum corneum. Another one, moisture checker was based on electrostatic capacity method, because there are positive correlations in the amount of moisture and the permittivity. The measurement depth is in the entire of the stratum corneum. The subjects were 255 women in 25-74 years old. Measurement period was 16 months from March to June next year. Results and conclusions were as follows: 1. The mean value of the skin moisture was 86.1 mu S with admittance skin moisture meter, and 37.6% with moisture checker. There was excellent relation between the values measured with two methods. 2. The change in the skin moisture appeared greatly in the admittance skin moisture meter, and it appeared minute difference in the moisture checker. 3. The change appears greatly so that admittance skin moisture meter may chiefly detect the skin surface part, the change became small with moisture checker may detect the whole of the stratum corneum. 4. The skin moisture was seasonal dependent; in summer or August results in maximum.