Hayabusa-2: Japan's rovers ready for touchdown on asteroid

[Winston]

Hayabusa-2: Japan's rovers ready for touchdown on asteroid
20 Sep 2018

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45578795

Rovers 1A and 1B (left and centre), alongside Minerva II-2 (right) which will be released at a later date:

 

[Speaknoevil]

Pretty cool pictures. Reported by Esquire no less... https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a23396418/japanese-rovers-land-on-asteroids-photos/

 

[Winston]

Japan space probe drops hopping rovers towards asteroid
September 21, 2018

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-japan-space-probe-rovers-asteroid.html

A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system.

The "Hayabusa2" probe jettisoned the round, cookie tin-shaped robots toward the Ryugu astroid, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

If the mission is successful, the rovers will conduct the world's first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface.
Taking advantage of the asteroid's low gravity, they will jump around on the surface—soaring as high as 15 metres (49 feet) and staying in the air for as long as 15 minutes—to survey the asteroid's physical features with cameras and sensors.

So far so good, but JAXA must wait for the Hayabusa2 probe to send data from the rovers to Earth in a day or two to assess whether the release has been a success, officials said.

"We are very much hopeful. We don't have confirmation yet, but we are very, very hopeful," Yuichi Tsuda, JAXA project manager, told reporters.

"I am looking forward to seeing pictures. I want to see images of space as seen from the surface of the asteroid," he said.
The cautious announcement came after a similar JAXA probe in 2005 released a rover which failed to reach its target asteroid.
Next month, Hayabusa2 will deploy an "impactor" that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a two-kilo (four-pound) copper object into the surface to blast a crater a few metres in diameter.

From this crater, the probe will collect "fresh" materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation, hoping for answers to some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth.

The probe will also release a French-German landing vehicle named Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) for surface observation.

Hayabusa2, about the size of a large fridge and equipped with solar panels, is the successor to JAXA's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa—Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned from a smaller, potato-shaped, asteroid in 2010 with dust samples despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey and was hailed a scientific triumph.

The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 and will return to Earth with its samples in 2020.

They Made It! Japan's Two Hopping Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu

https://www.space.com/41912-japanese-hopping-rovers-land-on-asteroid.html

 

[Winston]

 

[Winston]

The most interesting mission events are yet to come:

 

[grouch]

I've been following this with amazement and awe. So cool.

 

[Winston]

Japan space probe lands third robot on asteroid
3 Oct 2018

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-japanese-spacecraft-device-asteroid.html

The 10-kilogram (22-pound) box-shaped MASCOT is loaded with sensors. It can take images at multiple wavelengths, investigate minerals with a microscope, gauge surface temperatures and measure magnetic fields.

MASCOT's launch comes 10 days after the Hayabusa2 dropped a pair of MINERVA-II micro-rovers on the Ryugu asteroid.
The German-French Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander captured this photo of asteroid Ryugu during landing operations on Oct. 3, 2018. The lander's shadow is visible at upper right:

 

[Winston]

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe to land on asteroid on Feb 22

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-japan-hayabusa2-probe-asteroid-feb.html

 

[aerostadt]

Japan's Hayabusa2 has performed a successful touch-and-go on the asteroid.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/22/japanese-probe-lands-on-asteroid-to-capture-sample/

 

[Sooner Boomer]

It landed and fire a "bullet" into the asteroid...
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/hayabusa-lands-it-shoots-it-scores.151101/#post-1862663

 

[aerostadt]

Hayabusa2 has now used explosives(HMX) to blast a small hole in the asteroid for the purpose of getting another sample.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/05/7102...lly-drops-plastic-explosives-onto-an-asteroid

 

[Winston]

The target marker separation on May 30 during PPTD-TM1A was caught at the last moment by the small monitor camera, CAM-H! The image time was May 30, 11:18 JST (on-board time) at an altitude of about 9m. The image comes from a 600-kilogram, refrigerator-sized robot travelling at about 15 miles per second, around 170 million miles from Earth. It shows the shadow of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft and just below that shadow a tiny, spherical shadow. That tiny shadow is the target marker being released onto the asteroid.