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Ryugu, more than 180 million miles from Earth, and a 16-hour survey of its rocky surroundings.
The foot-wide, German-built lander is called MASCOT, which stands for Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout. It was ejected from Japan's Hayabusa 2 meter from a height of 51 meters (167 feet) and drifted downward to Ryugu at walking speed.
"Tra-Mi Ho, MASCOT project manager at the DLR Institute of Space Systems, said today in a status update. "From the lander's telemetry, we were able to see the surface and make contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later."
MASCOT took a picture of its own shadow on Ryugu's surface as it descended:
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "The lander is equipped with a swing arm to move it has to be used in the field of data collection, mission managers said in a tweet. "data-reactid =" 27 "> The lander is equipped with a swing arm to move itself around the surface. mission managers said in a tweet.
MASCOT's lifetime was limited because it's powered by onboard lithium batteries. Once the power runs out, the probe is dead. It has only 16 hours to record observations with its four instruments – a camera, a radiometer, a magnetometer and a French-built infrared spectrometer – and upload the data to Hayabusa 2.
Tweets from the team indicated that the survey was going according to plan:
I've been on asteroid Ryugu for a little over 12 hours running experiments non-stop! Now I'm working with MicrOmega and MARA! #AsteroidLanding
– MASCOT Lander (@ MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018
I have taken measurements with all my experiments, and my battery is holding up! Still going strong! #AsteroidLanding
– MASCOT Lander (@ MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018
MASCOT's mission was launched after two weeks of Hayabusa 2 deployed two mini rovers to Ryugu's surface for an initial round of recognition. In the coming months, Hayabusa 2 will come down to the asteroid and blast bits of rock from the surface for collection. It also has another mini-rover to release.
The probe is scheduled to come back to earth next year and drop off its samples during a flyby in late 2020.
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Check back for updates on MASCOT's status."data-reactid =" 34 ">Check back for updates on MASCOT's status.
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