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In a series of six tweets, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed the first images taken by the two rovers – including a video of 15 images – of Ryugu's surface, an asteroid of more than one kilometer the Hayabusa spacecraft from the agency.
"Rover-1B was able to shoot a movie on Ryugu's surface!" The film has 15 captured images on September 23, 2018 from 10:34 – 11:48 JST Enjoy "standing" on the surface of this asteroid! "
A series of specially designed cameras – four on the first mobile and three on the second – take stereo images of the surface of the asteroid. The rovers are also equipped with temperature gauges and optical sensors as well as an accelerometer and a set of gyroscopes.
JAXA also released a high resolution photo of the surface of the asteroid taken as Hayabusa descended to the surface to unload Rover-1A and 1-B.
Robots of jumps
Unlike NASA's Curiosity Rover on Mars, which has six wheels, Ryugu's 1kg stand-alone rovers move by hopping.
"The gravity on the surface of Ryugu is very low, so that a vehicle powered by normal wheels or crawlers floats upwards as soon as it has begun to move," JAXA scientists said. .
"Therefore, this jump mechanism was adopted to move on the surface of these small celestial bodies.The mobile should stay in the air for up to 15 minutes after a single jump before landing and move up 15 m (50 feet).) Horizontally. "
Some tweets from the JAXA have confirmed that the rovers have managed to jump since they came to the surface.
The imagery – the first taken from rovers of an asteroid – shows a rocky landscape against a backdrop of space.
The agency made history on Sunday by managing to place both unmanned rovers on Ryugu.
A third mobile called MASCOT will be launched from Hayabusa-2 in early October.
Material to collect
Later in the mission, scheduled for the end of October, the spacecraft will land on the asteroid after blowing a small crater with explosives.
After examining the distant object and taking samples, Hayabusa-2 will leave Ryugu in December 2019 before returning to Earth by the end of 2020 with its cargo of samples.
If successful, JAXA said it will be the "world's first sample return mission on a C-type asteroid".
Japanese scientists are racing with NASA for this achievement, the US agency's sample retrieval mission to arrive on Earth in 2023.
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