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takyon writes:

Hayabusa2 will begin orbiting asteroid 162173 Ryugu on June 27th. The spacecraft includes four robotic landers and will capture material for a sample return:

The Japanese asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2, launched on December 3, 2014 aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan, has nearly completed its long flight to asteroid Ryugu (formerly 1999 JU3) after a five year mission and an Earth flyby.

[...] The Hayabusa2 follow-on has one more reaction wheel (to make four) and improved, higher thrust ion engines, along with a backup asteroid sampling system, and the spacecraft is in good health so far. Hayabusa2 is a 600 kilogram (1300 pound) spacecraft that is based on the Hayabusa craft, with some improvements. It is powered by two solar panels and uses an ion engine with xenon propellant as its main propulsion source. The ion engine technology was first used in the Deep Space One experimental spacecraft in the late 1990's and also has been successfully used in the Dawn asteroid probe as well.

[...] 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. [...] International contributions include a small robotic lander (10 kilograms or 20 pounds) called MASCOT that is a joint venture of DLR (Germany) and CNES (France), while NASA is providing communications through the Deep Space Network.

[...] Its arrival at Ryugu is set for June 27th, and Hayabusa2 will be 20 km (12 miles) above the surface on that date, as things currently stand. The arrival will be followed by a press conference in Sagamihara, Japan.

The total mission cost is about $150 million. The H-IIA rocket costs about $90 million to launch.

Also at NHK.

Original Submission

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "Hayabusa2" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2
3. "162173 Ryugu" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu
4. "The spacecraft includes four robotic landers" - https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/06/hayabusa2-asteroid-ryugu-sample-return/
5. "total mission cost is about $150 million" - https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=2014-076A
6. "H-IIA rocket" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-IIA
7. "NHK" - https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180614_34/
8. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=27368

printed from SoylentNews, Hayabusa2 Approaches Asteroid Ryugu on 2024-05-13 02:06:52