DLR MASCOT on HAYABUSA-II, A Mission That May Change Your Idea of Life: AIV Challenges in a Fast Paced and High Performance Deep Space Project

MASCOT, a small 10kg Asteroid landing package on-board Hayabusa-2 is currently finalizing Phase-C of its development and after official go-ahead during the Critical Design Review it will undergo a final verification program at DLR before send to JAXA to be integrated into the mother spacecraft. Its last stages during the Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) process show that by applying a unique mix of conventional and tailored Model Philosophies it is possible to dynamical adapt the test program, limited by a fixed launch date, to accomplish for the shortest planning and a suitable weighing of costs and risks. In addition, this paper introduces the term Concurrent AIV to express the many simultaneous running test and verification activities.