A simulated global GM estimate of the asteroid 469219 Kamo‘oalewa for China’s future asteroid mission

ABSTRACT China will launch in the forthcoming years a sample return mission called ZhengHe, to asteroid 469219 Kamo‘oalewa (provisional designation 2016HO3) and comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro. The mission will consist of an orbiter and a nano-lander. One of ZhengHe’s investigations is the radio science experiment, whose main objective is the asteroid GM estimate. In this paper, we conduct full numerical simulations of the radio science experiment using the wudogs software package, developed by Wuhan University. In addition to two-way Doppler measurements, we also include one-way on-board distance measurements. A list of parameters including the spacecraft initial conditions and the global asteroid GM are solved using a weighted least-squares fit. The simulation results indicate that the GM solution is very sensitive to the ephemeris error. We need an accuracy within 2 km on the ephemeris of the asteroid to achieve a reliable estimate of GM.

Asteroid Mission Attempts Touchdown, Sample Grab

Hayabusa2 will fire a metal bullet into the asteroid surface to eject material that will then be collected. The mission will return the samples to Earth in late 2020.