DESTINY+


DESTINY+ is a planned mission to flyby the meteor shower parent body 3200 Phaethon, as well as various minor bodies originating from the "rock comet". The spacecraft is being developed by the Japanese space agency JAXA, and will demonstrate advanced technologies for future deep space exploration. As of 2017, DESTINY+ is planned to be launched in 2022.

Overview

DESTINY+ will be launched from Uchinoura Space Center by an Epsilon rocket in 2022 into low Earth orbit, and will spend 1.5 years raising its orbit with ion engines. A Lunar flyby will accelerate the probe into an interplanetary orbit. During this cruise time it will flyby a few near Earth objects for study, including the transition body 3200 Phaethon, as well as measure interplanetary and interstellar dust.
The probe's ion engines have the capability to perform another orbit transfer to study additional objects.

Objectives

DESTINY+ will be a technology demonstrator to further improve operations of low cost solar electric propulsion in deep space. It will also demonstrate innovative light-weight solar array panel technology. The scientific aspect of this mission is to understand origin and nature of dusts, which are key sources of organic compounds to Earth. It will also observe dusts from comet/asteroid 3200 Phaethon using a dust analyzer and will map its surface using a multiband telescopic camera to understand the mechanisms of dust ejection. The spacecraft will flyby as close as from 3200 Phaethon.

Spacecraft

DESTINY+ will use ultra light-weight solar panels and heat-actuated folding radiators, along with compact avionics. The spacecraft is designed to tolerate a radiation dose up to approximately 30 krad by using a 3 mm aluminum shield.

Propulsion

The spacecraft will be propelled by four μ10 solar electric ion engines, as used by Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, but while its predecessors operated only up to three engines simultaneously, DESTINY+ will use all four simultaneously for a total thrust of 40 mN The total dry mass of the ion engine system is.

Payload

DESTINY PLUS will cary three scientific instruments: