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Hayabusa2 Deploys MINERVA Landers to Asteroid Ryugu

posted by mrpg on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:16AM   
from the payload-for-science dept.

takyon writes:

Hayabusa2 conducts MINERVA-II deployment on Asteroid Ryugu

The Japanese asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 – launched on December 3, 2014 aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan – completed its long flight to asteroid Ryugu (formerly 1999 JU3) before – on September 21 – achieving the milestone of deploying its two tiny MINERVA-II robots/rovers.

[...] The Hayabusa2 mission is intended to image and sample the asteroid 1999 JU3, discovered in May 1999, now known as Ryugu, and to return samples of the asteroid, including samples excavated from an impactor to collect materials from under the surface, to Earth for analysis in laboratories.

[...] Besides the primary and backup sample collectors, the mission includes three MINERVA "hoppers" similar to the one used on the original Hayabusa mission that will land at several locations on the surface to study these locations with cameras and thermometers.

An impactor (SCI) with a 2 kg pure copper lump (Liner) will be used to excavate a crater on the surface, and there will be a sub-satellite that will be released to observe the impact.

Images from MINERVA-II 1 deployment.

162173 Ryugu and Hayabusa2.

Also at BBC, The Register, Space.com (alt).

Previously: Hayabusa2 Approaches Asteroid Ryugu
Hayabusa2 Reaches Asteroid 162173 Ryugu

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Original Submission

• Re:space exploration and nationalism (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:17PM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:17PM (#738579) Journal

  Reaching the newly discovered Planet 9 which is about 18 times farther than Pluto [nextbigfuture.com]

  NASA Concept to use 100 MW beamed power for ion drive that is 20 times better [nextbigfuture.com]

  John Brophy at NASA Jet propulsion laboratory combines a near term 100 megawatt laser beamed power system to enable an ion drive with 70 megawatts of power and 58000 ISP.

  They propose a new power/propulsion architecture to enable missions such as a 12-yr flight time to 500 AU—the distance at which solar gravity lensing can be used to image exoplanets—with a conventional (i.e., New Horizons sized) spacecraft. This architecture would also enable orbiter missions to Pluto with the same sized spacecraft in just 3.6 years. Significantly, this same architecture could deliver an 80-metric-ton payload to Jupiter orbit in one year, opening the possibility of human missions to Jupiter. These are just a few examples of high-impact missions that simply cannot be performed today due to limitations in current technology.

  --
  [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

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