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The first rovers to explore an asteroid just sent photos home
The first rovers to explore the surface of an asteroid have landed. After touching down September 21, the vehicles took pictures of asteroid Ryugu and at least one hopped around.
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which arrived at the near-Earth asteroid on June 27 after a journey of more than three years, released the MINERVA-II1 container from a height of about 60 meters (SN Online: 6/27/18). The container then released two 18-centimeter-wide, cylindrical rovers. Because Ryugu's gravity is so weak, the rovers can hop using rotating motors that generate a torque and send them airborne for about 15 minutes.
Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency released the first blurry, otherworldly pictures from the rovers on September 22. One image appears to have been taken midhop.
Images and comments from Hayabusa2 team members.
162173 Ryugu and Hayabusa2.
Previously: Hayabusa2 Approaches Asteroid Ryugu
Hayabusa2 Reaches Asteroid 162173 Ryugu
Hayabusa2 Deploys MINERVA Landers to Asteroid Ryugu
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @05:35PM
He's a lizard person, but they created him with an experimental update to the Red Dress protocol to create the Lens Flare Dresses.
It failed. So now they just have him making shitty Star Wars and Star Trek fanfiction.