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Hayabusa2 Outreach Activities and Its Public Response (page 08)
Ikuta, C.

Summary

This report summarises the outreach activities and results related to Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2, which conducted technologically challenging operations such as the release of rovers and a lander, touchdowns on the surface, and an impactor release to create an artificial crater in less than 10 months. Changes to the sequence of these operations after arriving at the target, the asteroid Ryugu, also posed a challenge for the outreach team. They had to quickly adjust the communication plan despite minimal resources. Thus, the team mapped out a strategy to share the scientific output and excitement of Hayabusa2 with the public through the mass media. All media materials were prepared and provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Frequent press briefings shared the mission status, operation schedule and risks, in addition to various aspects of the space mission, including engineering and scientific details. With materials provided by the outreach team, journalists and science reporters produced original content and published more than 67,000 online articles from Hayabusa2’s rendezvous with Ryugu to its return to Earth.

Suggested Citation (APA)
Ikuta, C. (2022). Hayabusa2 outreach activities and its public response. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, 31, 8-20. https://www.capjournal.org/issues/31/31_08.pdf