The hayabusa spacecraft arrived at near-earth asteroid (25143) itokawa in september 2005 and returned samples to earth in june 2010. During its 3-month-long asteroid proximity operations, asteroid…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $223,650.73 grant to the University of Arizona (doing business as the Arizona Board of Regents) to conduct research under the "Mineralogical Mapping of Asteroid Itokawa Using Hayabusa AMICA Camera Multi-Spectral and NIRS Spectr" program. The 4-year grant will support the calibration and restoration of multi-color data from the Hayabusa spacecraft's Asteroid Multiband Imaging Camera (AMICA) to create global 7-color mosaics of the asteroid Itokawa. Additionally, the grant will produce photometrically corrected spectral data from the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS) instrument and extract mineral composition maps. This high-quality dataset will be archived on the Planetary Data System (PDS) to serve the needs of the planetary science community. The award does not have a set-aside designation.

The hayabusa spacecraft arrived at near-earth asteroid (25143) itokawa in september 2005 and returned samples to earth in june 2010. During its 3-month-long asteroid proximity operations, asteroid multiband imaging camera (amica) and near infrared spectrometer (nirs) mapped the surface of the asteroid. Amica imaged the surface in seven color filters (0.38-1.0 microns) and a broadband clear filter centered around 0.65 microns. Nirs instrument obtained over 80,000 resolved spectra of itokawa in 64 channels covering a wavelength range between 0.76-2.25 microns. The focus of our 4-year proposal is to a) calibrate and restore the hayabusa amica multicolor data to full spatial, spectral and photometric accuracy and create a global 7 color mosaics at the best resolution possible, and b) produce photometrically corrected nirs spectral data and extract band parameter maps of itokawa. Using these global color/spectral mosaics we intend to create mineral (pyroxene chemistry, olivine/pyroxene ratio) maps of the entire visible surface itokawa. This high level dataset will be archived on the PDS and serve the science needs of the entire planetary science community.