Hopping Lander comes to an end on Ryugu asteroid

The MASCOT asteroid undercarriage lived quickly and died young, as expected.

The robot the size of a shoebox, which landed on the asteroid Ryugu (3,000 feet) wide (900 meters) Tuesday night (October 2), abandoned the ghost, announced members of the mission team this morning (October 4).

It sounds pretty fast, but MASCOT's non-rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasted a little longer than the 16 hours expected. [Japan’s Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu Mission in Pictures]

"It's all over with work! Oh my … that may be true? I've been exploring Ryugu for more than 17 hours." That's more than what my team was waiting for. I get overtime for this? #Asteroidlanding, "said MASCOT (via mission team members) on Twitter this morning.

"And during this extension, I 've also made another jump and explored part of the third day of asteroids! But the best thing is: I sent ALL the data that I have. I've collected at @ haya2kun! Now, team, it's up to YOU ​​to understand Ryugu. #AsteroidLanding, "added MASCOT in another tweet.

And during this extra time, I also did another jump and explored a part of a third day of asteroids! But the best part is that I sent ALL the data I collected. @ haya2kun! Now the team, it is up to YOU ​​to understand Ryugu. #AsteroidLanding

– MASCOT Lander (@ MASCOT2018) October 4, 2018

"@ haya2kun" refers to MASCOT's mother ship, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2, which arrived in orbit around Ryugu at the end of June. (And about the third day of asteroids – space rock rotates every 7.5 hours.)

Hayabusa2 deployed two tiny solar-powered tanks, called MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, on the rugged surface of Ryugu on September 21; this duo remains active on the asteroid today. Then came MASCOT, which was built by the German Aerospace Center, known by the German acronym DLR, in collaboration with the French space agency CNES.

The 22 lbs (10 kilograms) MASCOT carried four instruments: a camera, a spectrometer, a magnetometer and a radiometer. So, the LG has probably sent a lot of data to Hayabusa2, and this information will probably be back on Earth soon. (Some of the data is already returned, in fact, the MASCOT team has released a photo that the LG took on Ryugu down to the asteroid.)

The wheels are useless on an extremely low body of gravity such as Ryugu; a robot would float from the surface as soon as the tires start to turn, said officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Thus, Ryugu robots have all been designed to jump. MASCOT did this by manipulating a metal "swivel arm" inside its boxy-shaped body.

Hayabusa2 could also deploy another hopper: the orbiter also has an "optional" explorer called MINERVA-II2, which is about the same size as the 2.4 lb. (1,1 kg) MINERVA-II1 duo. MINERVA-II2 was built by a consortium of Japanese universities; the MINERVA-II1 pair was provided by JAXA and Aizu University.

And the mothership itself will go to the surface of Ryugu next year. The gear will do this to retrieve a sample of the space rock, which will come to Earth in a return capsule in December 2020, if all goes as planned.

The data collected by Hayabusa2 and its collection tanks should help scientists better understand the beginnings of the solar system and the role that carbon-rich asteroids such as Ryugu might have in the emergence of the planet on Earth there is a long time, mission officials said.

The $ 150 million Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014.

The first Hayabusa spacecraft visited the stony rock asteroid Itokawa in 2005 and managed to return to Earth a tiny sample of this space rock in 2010.

The first Hayabusa carried a hopper called MINERVA ("Micro Robot Experimental Nano Robot for Asteroid"). But this MINERVA failed to touch Itokawa.

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there" will be published on November 13th. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.