Today, Japan made history by landing two rovers onto the surface of an asteroid. The two rovers (named Rover-1A and 1B) fell from their mothership, Hayabusa2, less than 100 meters above diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu. Now they are hopping across the rocky landscape in an unprecedented feat of exploration. This picture was taken by Rover-1A in mid-hop:
Hopping is necessary because the asteroid’s gravity is too weak for simple rolling. Instead of wheels, the rovers have rotating motors inside that allow them to shift their momentum and, thus, make little jumps across the asteroid’s rugged surface. Mission controllers are taking great care that the rovers, which measure 18 cm by 7 cm and weigh only 1 kg, do not fly into space.
As historic as this achievement is, it is only the beginning: The two rovers are on a reconnaissance mission for two more robots slated to land later this year. In October, Hayabusa2 will release MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout), a larger lander made by the German Aerospace Center. MASCOT will be followed, in turn, by another Japanese robot.
Above: Hayabasa2 photographs its own shadow on the asteroid. Credit: JAXA
Exploring Ryugu is important. Classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, this 900-meter wide space rock can theoretically come closer to our planet than the Moon. This makes it a potential target for asteroid mining. Hayabasa2 will discover what valuable metals may be waiting there. Ryugu is also a very primitive body, possibly containing a chemical history of the formation of our solar system billions of years ago.
Launched in December 2014, Hayabusa2 reached asteroid Ryuga in June of this year. It is scheduled to orbit the asteroid for about a year and a half before returning to Earth in late 2020, carrying samples of Ryugu for analysis by researchers
via NASA Spaceweather.com
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http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20180725je/img/fig1.jpg
Asteroid Ryugu from an altitude of 6km. Image was captured with the Optical Navigation Camera – Telescopic (ONC-T) on July 20, 2018 at around 16:00 JST.
Image credit ※: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST.
I don’t think anyone understands how awful this news is!!
The Earth has limited resources, and we have already used most of them up. We must stop being a drain on Gaia, and live within our means – sustainably, using natural rock shelters as we were meant to. We must never think of using material that is not on this planet – that is for our children’s children…
ALL the asteroids are joined together in a gravitational dance. Until we are able to account for every movement of every speck of dust orbiting the Sun, from now until it dies, we should not touch anything. The Precautionary Principle should apply. We may look through telescopes, but NEVER touch.
Hands Off the Solar System!
/sarc….
I am really glad that you added the sarc tag there, you really had me going.
It’s hard to parody environmental thinking. They will always go one better…
Okaaaaay… these Japanese folks have done what Japanese folks are good at – concentrated on technical minutiae and got it work.
Good on ’em
But weren’t all these noises about science and knowledge and resources made about the Moon?
What became of that?
Oh you say we got:
Computers – a very mixed blessing to say the least, not least as The Computer as an object of authority is propelling the climate scare
Science – what science? What science can you do on bits of wasted old rock, the same rocks as are pushed out of earth-bound volcanoes daily?
Memory Foam- Do not get me started…..
Teflon. Somewhat useful but lets face it, a well-seasoned cast-iron pan is just as non-stick and lasts a good deal longer. And Teflon is plastic. ha ha
Knowledge. Yes we got that alright. We learned about Alpha male-ism, biggest bestest fastest firstest, Why else go to all that effort and the very first thing you do is stick a 6 foot flagpole into the thing. You don’t get any more blatant phallic symbolism that that.
Also a revelation of what frightened and primitive little creatures we are. The Moon has scared the sh1t out of humans since they first ever saw the thing. That is why it had to be conquered and ‘poked with a pointy thing’. We were scared of it and the only way human males can even try to get over that is by sticking their things into ‘whatever’
Mining. Nice. But this mined goodness has to ‘land’ somewhere. Somewhere useful ideally.
Considering what happens to old Sputniks in that they fall to the ground and, despite all the best computers and radars and telescopes, its is never a dead-cert where they will hit.
Apart from ‘somewhere in the Pacific’ maybe
Exactly what you want for your quadrillion $$$ shipment of cobalt.
Despite what people imagine about flying in airplanes as being super safe, insurance companies will tell you different. They count the number of journeys, rather than the number of miles covered. The important bit is the take-off and landing and looking the risks that way, flying is almost as risky as motorcycle riding.
Let’s gently remind ourselves of 2 particular Shuttle calamities
For the space miners, are you really saying you’re safe to be trying to land 10,000, 100,000 or megatonne sized loads of rock onto the quayside at Long Beach?
Considering that if that load just fell out of almost any earth orbit, it would still be moving at earth escape-velocity when it hit the ground – 25,000mph.
Did 9/11 involve 200 tonnes going at 300mph?
Are You Nuts
Put your willies away lads, its getting cold out. ‘Engage brain’ instead. (Responded to that letter yet? You know – the one from your wife’s lawyer? It all connects together.)
Me thinks Hollywood has a lot to answer for here – what did James T Kirk do at the end of every episode in order to ‘conquer his fear’ of the mysterious and scary (good looking female) alien?
Methinks you need to get a life. But then again, what good would that do?p
With your attitude we would still be living in caves.
“Computers – a very mixed blessing to say the least”
Indeed, since it allows nonsense like yours to be broadcast to the world.
Attach a rocket to it , fly it into Moon’s orbit and crush it onto the South pole where apparently there is some ice which will melt under impact to provide temporary reservoir of water, while strategically positioned seismograms on the Moon’s surface would enable accurate mapping of its interior.
typo: seismographs, seismometers
I went to Japan first in 1965 (my 20th birthday coincidentally) . The last time in 1993 when my ship was transferred to the Caribbean. I got to know the Japanese, warts and all. I like them. Good for them.
Have they ever apologized for their treatment of POWs in WWII?
Excellent!
I’ll even ignore the space mining nonsense talk….this time.
Video sent back by the hopping probes on the asteroid:
https://www.space.com/41957-japan-amazing-asteroid-photos-hayabusa2-rovers.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180928-sdc