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The rovers will use the low gravity environment to jump on the surface of the asteroid
A Japanese space probe on Friday released two explorers exploring an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that could shed light on the origin of the solar system.
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the probe "Hayabusa2" dropped the tin – shaped cookie shaped robots towards the Ryugu asteroid.
If the mission is successful, the rovers will lead the first robotic observation in motion of an asteroid surface.
Taking advantage of the low gravity of the asteroid, they will jump to the surface – reaching 15 meters (49 feet) and will stay in the air for 15 minutes – to examine the physical characteristics of the asteroid at the surface. Using cameras and sensors.
Until then everything is fine, but the JAXA has to wait for the Hayabusa2 probe to send rovers data to Earth in a day or two to determine if the release has been successful, officials said.
"We have a lot of hope, we have no confirmation yet, but we are very, very optimistic," Yuichi Tsuda, JAXA project manager, told reporters.
"I can not wait to see pictures, I want to see images of the space seen from the surface of the asteroid," he said.
The cautious announcement came after a similar survey conducted in 2005 by JAXA released a mobile that had failed to reach its target asteroid.
Next month, Hayabusa2 will deploy an "impactor" that will explode over the asteroid, throwing a two-kilogram (four-pound) copper object into the surface to blow up a crater a few meters in diameter.
From this crater, the probe will collect "fresh" materials not exposed to millennia of wind and radiation, hoping to get answers to some fundamental questions about life and the planet. universe.
The probe will also release a Franco-German landing vehicle called Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) for surface observation.
Hayabusa2, the size of a large refrigerator and equipped with solar panels, is the successor to JAXA's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa – the Japanese for the hawk.
This probe returned from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, with dust samples, despite the failures of its seven-year odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.
The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 and will return to Earth with its samples in 2020.
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The Japanese space probe reaches the asteroid in search of the origin of life
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