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Description
The concept of a ≈10 kg “nanolander” equipped with a customized suite of instruments designed to complement its carrier spacecraft’s science has been proven valuable e.g. with the Mobile Asteroid Surface sCOuT (MASCOT) surface science package on JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission. MASCOT successfully landed and operated on (162173) Ryugu on October 3rd, 2018, bridging the gap between the results of orbiter instruments and samples returned to Earth. MASCOT2, a photovoltaic-powered long-life derivate was studied in 2015/16 foreseen to be part of ESA’s proposed AIM mission, to be deployed on Dimorphos in advance of DART’s impact. Unlike the primary battery powered MASCOT, it would have been able to support long-term operations allowing to map the 3D internal structure and geophysical properties of the asteroid by ground-penetrating radar and accelerometers. MASCOT2 in the Didymos system served as the basis of self-transfer MASCOT studies which included propulsion to increase flexibility regarding possible restrictions of various carrier missions. Another variant, CALICUT, was studied to be part of a Chinese asteroid mission to the active asteroid, 133P/Elst-Pizarro, aimed at a long-term operation of the scientific instruments, including a camera, a gamma-ray-spectrometer, a wideband ground-penetrating radar, and a MultiScience Package (MSP) containing a magnetometer, a radiometer, an electric field sensor experiment, a neutral density gauge, an accelerometer, and a set of ground penetrators (“Darts”). In order to cope with the lower solar flux at main belt distances, the lander was designed to have almost 3 times the volume of MASCOT but remained at 13 kg integrated mass. A much wider portfolio of further studies has been performed for various proposed small solar system body missions, including fast fly-by support packages e.g. in a flotilla concept for NEOTωIST as well as adaptations for very small host spacecraft, e.g. resources-sharing concepts. ESA’s proposed RAMSES mission – via Hera a “grandchild” of AIM – inspired a fresh interpretation of the MASCOT2 idea benefiting from a decade of progress in instrument development enabling an expanded set of instruments as well as extensive re-use of MASCOT spare parts, to design and build a self-transfer nanolander within a short timeframe in the spirit and haste of a planetary defense mission now only 3 years from launch towards a very brief encounter before Earth; MASCOT took 2 years to develop from PDR to FM delivery. A wide-band ground penetrating radar, a seismometer, a gravimeter, an accelerometer, and the proven instruments of MASCOT would perform this investigation of the suBsurface of Apophis, Seismicity and Tidal forces in EarTh encounter (BASTET). Every potentially impacting NEO will experience the same deflection effects as MASCOT2 would have measured on Dimorphos during and after the DART impact, and it will experience a close Earth fly-by, naturally or after deflection. Thus, every rendezvous reconnaissance mission can benefit from its own investigations of the suBsurface of its Asteroid, Seismicity and Transient effects of Energy Transfers.