What is the relationship between "samurai" swords and space exploration?

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Have you ever thought about the tools you should use if you want to cut something in space?

In this regard, perhaps you will put on your list the swords of the warriors of Japan, known as "Samurai", which have been made over the centuries.

The type of steel used for making these swords is known for its remarkable hardness. On the Internet, there are a large number of clips showing these Japanese swords known as "Katana", which cut everything from thick wood planks to metal pipes.

Now, three engineers are working with a Japanese expert to make these swords to design a device to collect rock samples made from the same steel used in these weapons. They plan to use this device on the surface of an asteroid.

The asteroid bears the name of "Ryugo", an offense not exceeding one kilometer wide, revolving around the Sun in a trajectory between Earth and Mars. Spacecraft, space exploration vehicles and sampling tools were sent to him as part of the Japanese space mission "Hiabusa".

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Hayabusa 2, recently launched, brought to Earth amazing and fascinating images of the rock surface of the asteroid. But bringing shrapnel to our planet is a very difficult task, prompting some to come up with new and unknown ideas on how to achieve that goal.

In a paper detailing the early experiences in this regard, the team – including Ginrokro Matsunaga, a 70-year-old swordsman and Taiko Watanabe from the Kanagawa Institute of Technology – explained how many tools of Rock size were made using different and varied metal structures.

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These instruments included a type of traditional metal called "Tamahagani", made of coal and iron sand, used for the manufacture of Japanese swords.

The authors of this article stated that they borrowed the techniques used to make traditional Japanese swords, in order to make samples of drilling tools.

To this end, Matsunaga used quantities of iron sand taken from one of Japan's beaches to melt it and improve its hardness and flexibility by heating it at high temperature and then cooling it several times very quickly.

This has resulted in the manufacture of tools with small holes and cylindrical shapes, with sharp edges like the blade going to the inside.

As some people imagine, these tools work so as not to violently strike the asteroid with the drill blade like a real sword.

Although this may seem like a popular show, it is practically useless. Instead, it is supposed to be launched very quickly towards the rocky surface of the space object. Theoretically, this would puncture the surface of the asteroid and allow the sample to be taken from its soil.

The drill and sample under its sharp cutting tip can then be pulled towards the parent spacecraft through a rope between them.

But that does not seem so easy from the practical point of view: during a Hayabusa mission in 2005, it was already difficult to know how much rock an asteroid had been taken.

Scientists have failed to make two attempts in this regard, although a limited amount of dust has finally been collected in a box. Finally, 1500 granules were brought from this dust to the ground.

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Go Miyazaki / Wikimedia Commons

But any asteroid sampling tool should be able to collect much more, and it should be able to penetrate deeper than just sampling the rock surface of these objects.

Indeed, the surface of any asteroid is exposed to erosion factors for millions of years, including cosmic and ultraviolet rays, as well as the sun's X-rays.

"It is obvious that the soil of an asteroid would have been useful to tell us more about the history of the solar system, if we could get a sample from a deeper level under the rocks, to to get an asteroid, "says Martin Elvis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Center. Consider pristine rocks that have not been exposed to effects or erosion factors. "

The problem is that it is not easy to get even a sample of the surface of the asteroid or a level close to its surface, because of the two basic characteristics of the asteroids, the small one on the one hand and the lack drag force drawn from the gravity of the other.

"Any recourse to anything that allows you to use less force to cut off parts of the surface of an asteroid like this TamaHangani steel will help" achieve that goal, "says Elvis.

On the other hand, although you can calculate that asteroids are only big rocks that cross the space, they are actually closer to clusters of gravel and aggregates for clusters of rocks, which can to be very unstable.

So imagine how difficult it is to try to get a sample in an atmosphere that is almost meaningless.

"As human beings, we have approached asteroids only very rarely, let alone analyze their constituents directly, which means that no one can really be sure of what we can said Micah McKinnen, an independent researcher in the field of disasters and geophysics. To find it when you reveal the true nature of these objects.

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JAXA / University of Tokyo

McKinen says that it's possible that snow mixes with the rest of the components of the asteroid, which means that the blast was knocked out by the explosion caused by the snow that has turned to gas when this space object has reached the height.

To date, the Japanese team has limited testing of some of the drilling tools it has made by dropping them through a long tube to a concrete slab that in turn climbs a long staircase.

The equipment was successful in obtaining concrete samples, but was sometimes abandoned after being pulled by researchers and restored to the top.

"It is necessary to devise a mechanism to prevent sampling during the process of obtaining and recovering," said the team in his article. In addition, Tamahangani steel drill tools have not been tested as they are too expensive.

However, what is happening in Japan is the first step towards the manufacture of technology-based sampling tools and materials used in the manufacture of traditional Japanese swords and their launch in space.

But is this kind of metal better for sampling asteroids or not?

McKinen is not sure, but points out that the gravitational attraction of a metal as culturally important is something not to overlook. "By sending human elements with our spacecraft, we create links with these ships that go to such missions,) On our behalf".

This may represent the true value of Tamahagani, that is, a very human connection between us here on Earth and the asteroids that a type of steel might ever have.

Thus, a tool like the one made up of the minerals that make up the samurai swords and enters our solar system, linking the past and the future of Japan.

You can read the original article on BBC Future

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