[ad_1]
Two automated robots landed on the asteroid Ryugu Friday after separating from the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2, returning images as the probes bounced off the alien landscape of the asteroid nearly 200 million kilometers from the Earth .
The miniature craft, each smaller than the diameter of a typical trim, were released from the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft on Friday as the spacecraft descended within 200 feet (nearly 55 meters) of Ryugu.
"The good news has made me very happy," said Takashi Kubota, spokesman for the Hayabusa 2 mission. "The image taken by MINERVA-II-1 during a leap allowed me to relax, while a dream of several years became a reality. I felt impressed by what we had accomplished in Japan. This is just a real charm of deep space exploration. "
Worn aboard the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft since its launch from Earth in December 2014, the disc-shaped MINERVA-II robots descended to the asteroid, pulled by Ryugu's tenuous gravity – 80,000 times lower than that of the Earth – be less than 1 mph (about 30 centimeters per second).
The robots returned images and scientific data to the controllers on Earth via the Hayabusa 2 tanker, showing stained views of Ryugu's scattered surface and the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft as the landing gear descended to the asteroid.
Officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed Friday that the MINERVA-II robots have separated from Hayabusa 2 as planned. The Hayabusa 2 team provided updates on the descent from Hayabusa 2 to Ryugu from an "original position" about 20 kilometers from the asteroid, tweeting the images from the navigation camera of the asteroid.
At a press conference Friday after the deployment of the MINERVA-II rovers, Japanese scientists said they had received data from the landers while they were heading to the asteroid.
JAXA on Saturday released the first images of the two rovers and confirmed that at least one of the nano-probes – Rover-1A – was crossing the surface of the asteroid, using an internal mechanism to reach different locations on Ryugu. No previous mission has jumped to different locations on an asteroid, nor returned images to the surface of an asteroid.
"Both rovers are in good condition and are transmitting images and data," JAXA said in a statement on Saturday. "The analysis of this information confirmed that at least one of the rovers is moving on the surface of the asteroid."
So far, none of the images released by JAXA have been captured on Ryugu, but the robots are covered with solar cells, which allows them to recharge their batteries to continue operations.
"I can not find words to say how pleased I am to have been able to do mobile exploration on the surface of an asteroid," said Yuichi Tsuda, project manager at Hayabusa 2, in a statement from JAXA. "I am proud that Hayabusa2 could have contributed to the creation of this technology for a new method of space exploration by surface movement on small bodies."
Japanese scientists celebrated the feat, 13 years after the Japanese predecessor to the Hayabusa mission deployed a lander similar to the asteroid Itokawa. But the first MINERVA rover missed Itokawa and went into space.
"I was so excited to see these little rovers successfully explore an area of asteroids, as we could not do it at the time of Hayabusa, 13 years ago," said Makoto Yoshikawa, Hayabusa's mission director. "I was particularly impressed by the images taken very closely on the surface of the asteroid."
MINERVA stands for MIcro Nano Experimental Robotic Vehicle for Asteroid, and Hayabusa 2 has transported three second-generation MINERVA-II rovers. The third lander will be released for another descent to Ryugu next year.
Another lander, slightly larger than the MINERVA-II rovers, is scheduled for a descent to the Ryugu asteroid on Oct. 3. The Landing Scout Mobile Asteroid, or MASCOT, was developed jointly by the German and French space agencies and measures the size of a shoebox.
Like the Japanese MINERVA-II rover, MASCOT will attempt to jump to different locations on Ryugu, taking photos and collecting scientific measurements on the environment and composition of the asteroid.
The MINERVA-II robots each weigh a little over 1.1 kg (1.1 kg) and are equipped with cameras, thermometers and other sensors to study Ryugu from the surface. The MINERVA-II undercarriages each have a diameter of 17 cm and measure approximately 7 cm.
"Although I was disappointed with the blurry image that came from the rover, it was good to be able to capture this cliché as it was recorded by the rover while the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is shown," he said. said Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, a member of the team. Hayabusa 2 team responsible for MINERVA-II rovers. "Moreover, with the image taken during the jump on the surface of the asteroid, I was able to confirm the effectiveness of this mechanism of movement on the small celestial body and see the result many years of research. "
Tanker Hayabusa 2 was responsible for placing the landing gear on a trajectory to the northern hemisphere of Ryugu.
NASA's NEAR-Shoemaker mission was the first spacecraft to land smoothly on the asteroid, when it made a controlled landing on Eros in 2001 and continued to transmit scientific data to the Earth. But NEAR-Shoemaker did not return images of asteroids to the surface of Eros, leaving this "first" space exploration still to be won.
Hayabusa 2 arrived in Ryugu at the end of June, triggering more than a year of mapping, scientific surveys and a series of descents to the asteroid to land landers and take rock samples. to bring them back to Earth.
Ryugu's first reconnaissance of the mission allowed scientists to measure its size and mass. The asteroid has a slightly flattened shape, extending over about 3,280 feet (1 kilometer) in diameter along its equator and about 880 meters (880 meters) from a pole to the l & # 39; 39; another.
Ryugu rotates every 7.63 hours and has a mass of about 450 million tons (496 million tons), which gives a calculation of the gravity of the asteroid.
Scientists say that Ryugu is a C-type asteroid, suggesting that it contains primitive building blocks left on the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Managed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Hayabusa 2 will bring specimens of the primordial surface of the asteroid for analysis in sophisticated laboratories on Earth.
The spacecraft will attempt to collect the first of Ryugu's three samples by the end of October, using a pellet taken from the asteroid to force the surface material through a funnel into a collection chamber. Hayabusa 2 repeated its descent maneuvers for the first time at the beginning of the month, but discontinued the approach after its laser navigation sensor was unable to provide distance and closure rate information. computer of the probe.
The engineers attributed the fault to Ryugu's dark, unreflected surface and adjusted the laser navigation sensor settings to prevent the problem from reoccurring in the future. No such problem was reported Thursday or Friday as Hayabusa 2 deployed the MINERVA-II undercarriages.
Once he has specimens of Ryugu, Hayabusa 2 will launch its ion engines and will leave for Ryugu by the end of next year to travel to Australia in December 2020.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
[ad_2]
Source link
