Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

admin
Pinned September 29, 2018

<> Embed

@  Email

Report

Uploaded by user
Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission lands on target asteroid
<> Embed @  Email Report

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission lands on target asteroid

Jon Fingas, @jonfingas

September 23, 2018
 
 
Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission lands on target asteroid | DeviceDaily.com
 

After months of hovering around its target, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission has made contact. Two of the host spacecraft’s landers (ROVER-1A and 1B) have touched down on the surface of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu and have already been hopping around as they take photos (like the one above) and gauge the space rock’s temperature. As far as the mission has come, though, it’s really just the start.

Hayabusa 2 is also poised to launch ROVER-2, which adds optical and ultraviolet LEDs to spot floating dust particles. MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout), meanwhile, will tumble rather than fly but can use its camera, infrared spectrometer, magnetometer and radiometer to study the smaller structural details of the asteroid’s looser surface material. The main Hayabusa 2 vessel should near the surface in October, when it will shoot a tantalum ‘bullet’ into the asteroid so that it can catch particle samples and return them to Earth.

You’ll be waiting a while for the samples to return. Hayabusa 2 doesn’t leave until December 2019, and isn’t expected to return home until December 2020. The payoff promises to be huge, though. Scientists will not only collect more samples than during the first Hayabusa mission, they’ll have lander data that wasn’t available after the first Hayabusa’s Minerva robot failed.

Engadget RSS Feed

(25)