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After patiently waiting for the target asteroid to complete its rotation, scientists monitored the progress of a Japanese spacecraft and confirmed that two small robots had reached the surface of the Ryugu asteroid and were returning now. pictures of their new home.
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 was launched in December 2014 and came into orbit around the asteroid 162173 'Ryugu & # 39; in June. Two small rovers MINERVA-II 1A and MINERVA-II 1B were deployed.
Astronomers from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed that the landing of the two tiny robots was a success and that the two aircraft were working perfectly.
Japanese probe explores possible Ryugu Near-Earth Asteroid
For the second time only in history, a man made spacecraft would have landed successfully on an asteroid.
The Japanese probe Hayabusa 2 was launched in December 2014 and came into orbit around the 162173 Ryugu asteroid last June. On Friday, the first of the two small "rovers" – MINERVA-II 1A – slowly descended from the hawker Hayabusa 2. MINERVA-II 1B will be deployed early next year.
Just when he was about to land on the space rock, the rotation of the asteroid took the gear out of sight of scientists from the Japanese Agency. aerospace exploration (JAXA) at Chofu. They will have to wait until Saturday morning to find out what happened.
If their landings succeed, the two "rovers" will explore the Ryugu surface with a variety of scientific equipment, including optical and temperature sensors and seven different cameras, noted Space.com.
Despite their name, the MINERVA [Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid] The rovers, which have a mass of only a kilo and measure seven inches wide by 2.8 inches in height, will not roll over the surface of the asteroid: they will hop.
"The gravity on the surface of Ryugu is very low, so a mobile powered by normal wheels or crawlers will float upwards as soon as it starts to move," according to the JAXA mission page. "Therefore, this jumping mechanism has been adopted to move on the surface of these small celestial bodies.We expect the mobile will stay in the air for up to 15 minutes after a single jump before the landing and [50 feet] horizontally. "
What's more, the computers on the rovers will decide where to go next, which means that they will not have to wait for timely delays in interstellar communication.
The mother ship orbiting above the asteroid is also a lander. Before all is said and done, it will also crash on Ryugu, plummeting towards the asteroid in 2019 to grab samples of underground materials after the impact. We hope that the sample capsule will return to Earth for analysis at the end of 2020.
The Hayabusa 2 mission costs a total of $ 150 million and was carried out with the German Aerospace Center and the French space agency CNES.
Why spend all this money to fetch dust on Ryugu? Well, on the one hand, it is estimated that the asteroid contains up to $ 80 billion in nickel and iron, and the exploitation of space is the next big thing, reported Sputnik.
According to NASA, there is also a significant threat that the Ryugu, a kilometer wide, could hit the Earth. In addition, the dust collected on its surface is virgin, dating back to the early days of the solar system. This is invaluable for astronomers and astrophysicists who want to know more about the formation of our system 4.6 billion years ago.
Source: Sputnik News
Related Links
Hayabusa2 at JAXA
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology
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Ceres takes life from an ice volcano at a time
Tucson AZ (SPX) Sep 18, 2018
According to a new study by the University of Arizona, ice volcanoes on the dwarf planet Ceres generate, on average, enough material to fill a cinema every year during its 4.5 billion years of life.
The study, conducted by global researcher Michael Sori, marks the first time that a cryovolcanic activity rate has been calculated from observations and its results help solve a mystery concerning the missing mountains of Ceres.
Discovered in 2015 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, the 3-mile-high ice volcano … read more
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