Image-based Autonomous Navigation of Hayabusa2 using Artificial Landmarks: Design and In-Flight Results in Landing Operations on Asteroid Ryugu

Hayabusa2 is an asteroid sample return mission by JAXA. The spacecraft was launched in 2014 and arrived at the target asteroid Ryugu on 27 June 2018. During 1.5-year proximity phase, several critical operations including two landing/sampling operations were successfully performed. They were based on autonomous image-based descent and landing techniques. This paper describes an image-based autonomous navigation of the Hayabusa2 mission using artificial landmarks named target markers (TMs). Its basic algorithm, and in-flight results in the 1st touchdown and its rehearsal are shown.