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According to tweets from the Japanese Space Agency, Japan's intrepid asteroid rovers sent back images and high-resolution images of the surface of the celestial body they were exploring.
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 Spaceship Hayabusa.
"The Rover-1B managed to shoot a movie on Ryugu's surface! The film has 15 images taken on September 23, 2018 from 10:34 – 11:48 JST. Enjoy the "position" on the surface of this asteroid! "
A series of specially designed cameras – four on the first mobile and three on the second – take stereoscopic 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.
The JAXA also released a high-resolution photo of the asteroid's surface taken as Hayabusa descended to the surface to unload Rover-1A and 1-B.
The agency also posted on its official website Hayabusa-2 photos showing the location of the image captured by Hayabusa on the surface of the asteroid.
Robots of jumps
Unlike NASA's Curiosity Rover on Mars, which has six wheels, the stand-alone 1kg Ryugu mobiles move by jumps.
"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 has been adopted to move on the surface of such small celestial bodies. The mobile must stay airborne for up to 15 minutes after a single jump before landing and move up to 15 meters (50 feet) horizontally. "
Some tweets from the JAXA have confirmed that the rovers have managed to jump since they came to the surface.
The images – the first taken from asteroids – showed a rocky landscape against a background 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 so that samples that have not been exposed can to be collected under the surface of the object.
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, the JAXA said it would be the "first mission to return samples to a C-type asteroid."
Japanese scientists are racing at NASA to achieve this feat. The US agency's sample retrieval mission is expected to return to Earth in 2023.
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