You have been to Mars and a comet; NASA Japan invites you to an asteroid: NPR

A computer graphic image provided by the Japanese space agency shows two drum-shaped and solar-powered rovers on an asteroid. A Japanese unmanned spacecraft launched two small vehicles on the asteroid Ryugu last week.

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A computer graphic image provided by the Japanese space agency shows two drum-shaped and solar-powered rovers on an asteroid. A Japanese unmanned spacecraft launched two small vehicles on the asteroid Ryugu last week.

Jaxa / AP

Want to see what it would be like to stay on an asteroid? Well, if you were not a human, but rather a jumping robot seven inches in diameter, just under 3 inches tall?

A video released on Thursday by one of two bouncing rovers currently on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid – more than 200 million kilometers from the Earth – shows it to you.

An excerpt from a 15-frame film captured by one of the MINERVA-II1 vehicles on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid last week.

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An excerpt from a 15-frame film captured by one of the MINERVA-II1 vehicles on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid last week.

JAXA

"Have fun" standing "on the surface of this asteroid!" The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has written on their Twitter post containing the video.

Part of a collection of media published by the agency, the video shows the rocky surface of the asteroid and the sun moving in the sky, seen from the asteroid.

As seen in the night sky from Earth, the asteroid – and the little rovers that lie there – are currently crossing the constellation of the Virgin and are positioned between the planets Mercury and Venus.

The video, consisting of 15 images, was captured on September 23, as well as other media published Thursday by JAXA.

A series of photos taken by the same rover who captured the video confirms a "jump" of the robot, according to the Japanese team, which is a big problem for them.

"We were able to confirm that Rover-1B had jumped!" JAXA wrote in their tweet containing the series of photos.

The gravity on the surface of asteroids like Ryugu is very low. Vehicles moving by wheels or tracks float upwards as soon as they begin to move. So, hop rovers instead.

"In the mobile, there is a motor that turns and that the mobile" jumps "(jump) during the rebound," says JAXA on its website.

This jump propels rovers into the air for 15 minutes and allows the mobile to move nearly 50 feet horizontally along the surface of the asteroid.

As stated on the project website, Yuichi Tsuda, a project manager, was short of words when the asteroid jump capability of the rovers was confirmed on September 22nd.

"I can not find words to say how happy I am to be able to explore the surface of an asteroid in mobile exploration, and I'm proud that Hayabusa2 contributed to the creation of this technology for a new method of space exploration movement. on small bodies, "said Tsuda.

According to the JAXA website for the mission, the two rovers that captured the media are called Rover-1A and Rover-1B.

The rovers were stored in a container called MINERVA-II1. The container was launched from the spacecraft Hayabusa2 last week and this spacecraft is currently orbiting the asteroid.

The surface of the asteroid Ryugu, extracted from the spacecraft Hayabusa2.

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The surface of the asteroid Ryugu, extracted from the spacecraft Hayabusa2.

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MINERVA stands for Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid. Both in MINERVA-II1 and Hayabusa2 come from the fact that it is a replacement mission. However, the first Hayabusa failed to put its hopper, the original MINERVA, on the surface of the Itokawa asteroid more than ten years ago.

"The image taken by MINERVA-II1 during a leap allowed me to relax while the dream of several years became a reality," said Takashi Kubota, spokesman for the project on the project's website. .

The series of hopping photos and video were taken by Rover-1B, which, although they were designated as the "B" rover, seems to have stolen the series.

However, Rover-1A captured an image that displays the shadow of its own antenna and pin.

The pins of the rovers have a few roles: they increase the friction during jumps, protect the solar cells that feed the robots at the landing and some of the pins have a sensor capable of directly measuring the surface temperature of the aircraft. 39; asteroid.

Bill Chappell, of NPR, reported that Ryugu's study, a primitive asteroid, could help scientists understand the evolution of the Earth as a planet and better understand how the solar system works.

While the Rover-1B might think that it's the center of the solar system after its first video, the rovers and their asteroid host are currently between the orbits of Earth and Mars at more than 100 million kilometers from the Sun.