First Rover on a Fast Moving Asteroid

Hayabusa2 looks down at its
shadow casted onto the asteroid.
Courtesy of JAXA.

MINERVA rover looks up
right after being deploy from
Hayabusa 2 (upper). Ryugu
asteroid is on the bottom.
Courtesy of JAXA.

    JAXA has successfully landed to 'hopping' rovers onto the Ryugu asteroid! This is the first man made object to thrown onto a fast moving celestial body, but not the first to be on an asteroid. (NASA's the first one.) The two rovers MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, has successfully been deployed from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The Ryugu asteroid is a potentially dangerous celestial body from the Apollo Asteroids, which are bodies of rocks have a near-Earth orbit, and can fall into the planet if unfortunately it crosses with Earth on its orbit. The term Ryugu is Japanese for Dragon Palace, and was named at first 199JU3, but then was named Ryugu. The WikiProject Astronomy team states, "The asteroid was officially named "Ryugu" by the Minor Planet Center on 28 September 2015 (M.P.C. 95804). The name refers to Ryūgū (Dragon Palace), a magical underwater palace in a Japanese folktale. In the story, the fisherman Urashima Tarō travels to the palace on the back of a turtle, and when he returns, he carries with him a mysterious box, much like Hayabusa2 returning with samples." The asteroid was given to the name based on a Japanese folklore and the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The Ryugu asteroid is about a kilometer wide, and is a dark object with means of a C-type and G-type asteroid, and orbits the sun every sixteen months.

Yellow= SUN
Purple= Hayabusa2
Blue= Earth
Green= Ryugu
Courtesy of Wikipedia.

   Hayabusa2 was launched December 2014, and reached its target on June 27, 2018, and dropped the two rovers on September 21, 2018. The spacecraft was built by JAXA, as a better and advanced model of the Hayabusa spacecraft launched years earlier. Many improvements had been added to the craft, and currently has completed its tasks. Hayabusa2 will also collect some asteroid samples, by fire a bullet into the asteroid, causing some specimen to fly out, and the spacecraft will collect it with its 'sampling horn'. The picture below gives a more detailed explanation of how it works. The spacecraft also carries the two rovers, which will take pictures and explore the asteroid.

This picture explains how the
spacecraft will collect its samples.
Courtesy of JAXA.

The MINERVA rover.
Courtesy of JAXA.

A detailed explanation of how the rovers move.
Courtesy of JAXA.

    The two rovers, MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, 7 inches wide and 2.8 inches tall, were tossed and bounced on the asteroid, for they can't use wheels, because the lack of such gravity would cause the rover to fly again, but with special technology, JAXA had put into the rover, helps the rover to jump and land, without leaving the asteroid, for the asteroid its very minimal amount of gravity. The rovers uses a motor to make it jump, and then waiting for the gravity to pull back the rover, it takes its time to make measurements, record data, and take pictures, and send them all back to Earth. For now, the two rovers had done an amazing job, and had taken several photos.

MINERVA-II1B takes this
picture in its hop.
Courtesy of JAXA.

MINERVA-II1A takes this shot
of a rock formation on the asteroid.
Courtesy of JAXA.

    However, these aren't the only rovers Hayabusa2 is delivering. It will also be delivering MASCOT, later in October, and next year, it will deliver MINERVA-II2, and later 2019, Hayabusa2 will grab a chance to collect and send back the asteroid sample it collects. Just as what Neil Armstrong stated in 1969, "One small step for man, one big leap for mankind.", this mission will and can take us to another new level of knowledge and thinking to our current thoughts and beliefs.

A high resolution picture of
asteroid, taken by Hayabusa2.
Courtesy of JAXA.

The location of the HD picture taken by the spacecraft.
Courtesy of JAXA.

       MASCOT (French-German lander) is doing an important job of work, as has 16 hours of battery life to do everything, including using a microscope to determine the materials of the asteroid of telling scientists what the asteroid's made up of. The robot will also make check the temperature, magnetic-field, and take pictures of the asteroid. MINERVA-II2 will do about the same thing when it lands on the asteroid. Hayabusa2 after collecting its samples will leave the asteroid in late 2019, and head back to Earth and drop its samples in a capsule, for scientists back on Earth.

A image taken by MASCOT.
Courtesy of German Aerospace Center (DLR).

(NEW UPDATE! March 28, 2019)
      The Hayabusa2 has completed its major milestone! On February 22, 2019, the spacecraft flew right above the asteroid and shot its 'bullet'. It successfully collected rock samples and is now orbiting a little farther from the asteroid. As from the GIF and the video below, the bullet caused a mess around the spacecraft, with the rocks around 10 cm in diameter. With this 'mess', it gave observers proof that the sampling horn has collected the samples from the impact of the bullet. Hayabusa2 would sent a capsule containing these samples that would reach Earth by 2023. The original touchdown date was delayed because of the discovery of the roughness of the asteroid. The team soon found the flat area and carried out the experiment. Hayabusa2 is continuing to explore the asteroid, doing research and taking observations of Ryugu, until the end of the year (2019), where it will return back home with the samples collected.

The procedures that
Hayabusa2 would do
collect the rock sample.
Credits: JAXA

Stabilized GIF by Jacint Perez.
Credits: JAXA & Jacint Perez

---Credits: JAXA

WELL LET'S GO HAYABUSA2, MINERVA-II rovers, MASCOT, and all the people behind this mission!

For more info on the Hayabusa2 mission, go to http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/news/schedule/.


Lots of Information on the Hayabusa2 Mission:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/hayabusa2-touchdown-recap.html

Bibliography:

"162712 Ryugu" Wikimedia Foundation INC. September 24, 2018. Retrieved at September 26, 2018 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu/.

Wall, Mike. "Japanese Probe Deploys Tiny Hopping Rovers Toward Bug Asteroid Ryugu" Space.com. September 21, 2018. Retrieved at September 2, 2018 from:
https://www.space.com/41898-hayabusa2-deploys-hopping-robots-asteroid-ryugu.html/.

"Hayabusa2 - Asteroid Exploration Mission" Spacecrafts and Satellites. September 24, 2018. Retrieved at September 27, 2018 from:
http://spaceflight101.com/spacecraft/hayabusa-2/.