A hopping space probe which will land on the surface of a large asteroid has been launched by the Japanese Space Agency.

The agency's spacecraft released two small exploration robots in a research project to find clues to the origin of the solar system.

Both Minerva-II rovers were lowered from the unmanned Hayabusa2, on to the asteroid Ryugu.

The rovers move around by hopping, because the gravity on the asteroid makes rolling difficult. Each hop lasts 15 minutes.

The spacecraft travelled to the asteroid, which is 170 miles (280m km) from Earth, and arrived in June.

The space agency (JAXA) said it would know if the robots have landed on Saturday, when they will send confirmation data of touchdown.

If the mission is successful it will be the first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface.

The two robots will capture images of the asteroid and measure temperatures before the agency sends a larger rover in October.

Yuichi Tsuda, JAXA project manager said: "We are very much hopeful. We don't have confirmation yet, but we are very, very hopeful.

"I am looking forward to seeing pictures. I want to see images of space as seen from the surface of the asteroid."

Shortly after the launch, the agency's Twitter account for the lander wrote: "Breathtaking... just breathtaking, don't you think? Go MINERVA II1 rovers! You're on your way to #Ryugu … and I'm next!"

JAXA also revealed it had lost communication with the robots, writing: "Communication with MINERVA-II1 has currently stopped. This is probably due to the rotation to Ryugu, and MINERVA-II1 is now on the far side of the asteroid.

"We are currently working to confirm if there are images capturing the MINERVA-II1 landing."

Next month Hayabusa2 will deploy an impactor which will explode above the asteroid, to blast a crater into its surface.

The probe will then collect fresh materials from inside the crater which have not been exposed to wind and radiation.

Hayabusa2 launched in December 2014 and is due back to Earth in 2020.

JAXA tried to launch a probe in 2005, but it failed to land on its target asteroid. </s> Hayabusa2’s project manager Yuichi Tsuda has said that the hand of mankind 'has reached a new star today,' after Japan's probe successfully extracted a sample from the surface of the Ryugu asteroid.

In a glorious feat, Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe has managed to land on Ryugu and capture a sample from the C-type asteroid. After the probe exited its orbit, it landed on the surface of the asteroid only momentarily, but was also able to retrieve a sample from the asteroid despite the many challenges associated with this complex endeavor.

According to BGR, to pull off capturing a sufficient quantity of dust from Ryugu, as soon as the Hayabusa2 probe touched down on the asteroid the probe had to aim a bullet squarely at its surface.

As the probe’s handlers were 180 million miles away on Earth, there was no way that any direct control could be exerted upon the spacecraft, which meant that all of the engineers involved with Japan’s space program JAXA had to sit back and wait to get word from Hayabusa2 on whether its mission was successful.

Because there were delays of approximately 20 minutes when communicating with the distant probe, engineers were hopeful that all of their hard work had paid off, and in this they were not disappointed.

JAXA have now announced that they were able to shoot a projectile straight into Ryugu, quickly and smoothly retrieving a sample of the surface dust, after which the Hayabusa2 probe went back into orbit around the asteroid.

Yuichi Tsuda, the project manager of the Hayabusa2 mission, was elated over its success, and explained to the media that he was extremely relieved at the moment.

As Spaceflight Now have reported, Tsuda also stated, “Mankind’s hand has reached a new star today.”

The Hayabusa2 mission marks the second occasion that Japan has managed to retrieve samples from the surface of an asteroid. Japan’s first spacecraft to achieve this was its Hayabusa probe, which was sent to the asteroid Itokawa. However, on this particular occasion the probe only extracted very tiny specimens from the asteroid after suffering from a large number of difficulties with the project.

These included a fuel leak, reaction wheel failures and a problem with the system that was intended to be used to fire projectiles into the asteroid. Due to these issues, Hayabusa took what it could get and flew its microscopic sample back to Earth in 2010.

While Tsuda isn’t entirely certain how large of a sample has been collected from Ryugu, which was taken from the name of a dragon’s palace in a fairy tale about the adventures of Urashima Tarō, he believes that the Hayabusa2 probe almost certainly obtained a “decent amount of sample” from the asteroid. </s> A pair of tiny JAXA robots, released by the Hayabusa2 probe, have successfully landed on the Ryugu asteroid and began transmitting images from the surface of the “potentially hazardous” object four years after the mission launch.

The first images from the astronomical object flying at some 300 million kilometers from the Earth were received by Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) immediately after the MINERVA-II1 rovers touched down on the asteroid on Friday.

The first image was taken after the separation of the two cylinder-shaped explorers from the Hayabusa2 space probe. Snapped while the rover was rotating, the blurred image shows Hayabusa2 at the top of the screen with the surface of Ryugu depicted at the bottom.

The second image received on Earth was captured by Rover-1B and shows a much clearer definition of the surface of Ryugu in the lower right corner, with sunlight reflection visible on the top left. The third image released by JAXA was snapped by Rover-1A as it hopped on the surface of its target, offering yet another glimpse of the mysterious object.

“MINERVA-II1 is the world’s first rover (mobile exploration robot) to land on the surface of an asteroid,” JAXA said. “This is also the first time for autonomous movement and picture capture on an asteroid surface.”

Measuring just 18-by-7cms and weighing about one kilo, MINERVA-II1 rovers will take advantage of Ryugu’s low gravity to hop about the surface of the asteroid, which is approximately one kilometer in diameter. The robots will take photos and temperature readings of Ryugu before Hayabusa2 space probe lands on the asteroid’s surface in 2019.

Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 and made its rendezvous with Ryugu in June this year. Once the probe completes taking samples from the asteroid, it will head back to Earth in late 2020.

Like this story? Share it with a friend! </s> Tokyo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Jul, 2019 ) :Japan's Hayabusa2 probe landed successfully Thursday on a distant asteroid for a final touchdown, hoping to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system.

"The touchdown is successful," spokesman Takayuki Tomobe from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told AFP.

The successful touchdown was greeted with cheering and applause in the JAXA mission control room, with officials grinning and shaking hands.

JAXA officials said earlier that the probe appeared to have landed successfully, but confirmation came only after Hayabusa2 lifted back up from the asteroid and resumed communications with the control room.

"All of us are relieved to see that the probe has resumed sending data from its antenna, which can send a large amount of data to us," Tomobe said.

"This means that the probe is not in a serious condition," he added.

The brief landing Thursday is the second time Hayabusa2 has touched down on the desolate asteroid Ryugu, some 300 million kilometres (185 million miles) from Earth.

The complex multi-year mission has also involved sending rovers and robots down to the surface.

Thursday's touchdown was intended to collect pristine materials from beneath the surface of the asteroid that could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth, some 4.6 billion years ago.

To get at those crucial materials, in April an "impactor" was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid's surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere. </s> A Japanese space probe named after a falcon, Hayabusa2, has touched down on an asteroid more than 300 million km (186 million miles) from Earth on a mission to seek clues about the origins of life, Japan's space agency said on Friday.

The spacecraft's landing on the asteroid Ryugu, just 900 metres (3,000 feet) in diameter, came after an initial attempt in October was delayed because it was difficult to pick a landing spot on the asteroid's rocky surface.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said on Friday Hayabusa2 fired a small projectile into the surface of Ryugu to collect particles scientists hope the spacecraft will bring back to Earth for analysis.

"We may have caused some worry due to the delay but we carried out our plan flawlessly over the past four months to bring it to a successful landing," project manager Yuichi Tsuda told a news conference.

"It landed in the best circumstances among the scenarios we envisioned," he said.

It is the second Japanese spacecraft to land on an asteroid after Hayabusa touched down on a near-Earth asteroid named Itokawa in 2005. It was the first to bring asteroid dust back to Earth, although not as much as hoped.

Asteroids are believed to have formed at the dawn of the solar system and scientists say Ryugu may contain organic matter that may have contributed to life on Earth.

JAXA's plan is for Hayabusa2 to lift off Ryugu and touch back down up to three times. It blasted off in December 2014 and is scheduled to return to Earth at the end of 2020. </s> In this picture taken on July 10, 2019 a man walks past a screen displaying a computer-generated image of the Hayabusa2 probe, during a news broadcast at Akihabara district in Tokyo. Japan's Hayabusa2 probe landed successfully on a distant asteroid for a final touchdown on July 11, 2019, hoping to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system. Source: Behrouz MEHRI / AFP

Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe landed successfully Thursday on a distant asteroid for a final touchdown, hoping to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system.

“The touchdown is successful,” spokesman Takayuki Tomobe from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told AFP.

The successful touchdown was greeted with cheering and applause in the JAXA mission control room, with officials grinning and shaking hands.

JAXA officials said earlier that the probe appeared to have landed successfully, but confirmation came only after Hayabusa2 lifted back up from the asteroid and resumed communications with the control room.

“All of us are relieved to see that the probe has resumed sending data from its antenna, which can send a large amount of data to us,” Tomobe said.

“This means that the probe is not in a serious condition,” he added.

The brief landing Thursday is the second time Hayabusa2 has touched down on the desolate asteroid Ryugu, some 300 million kilometres (185 million miles) from Earth.

The complex multi-year mission has also involved sending rovers and robots down to the surface.

Thursday’s touchdown was intended to collect pristine materials from beneath the surface of the asteroid that could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth, some 4.6 billion years ago.

To get at those crucial materials, in April an “impactor” was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid’s surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

Hayabusa2’s first touchdown was in February, when it landed briefly on Ryugu and fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.

The second touchdown required special preparations because any problems could mean the probe would lose the precious materials already gathered during its first landing.

A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2’s camera after the April blast showed that parts of the asteroid’s surface are covered with materials that are “obviously different” from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters before the latest touchdown.

The probe was expected to land briefing in an area some 20 metres away from the centre of the crater to collect the unidentified materials believed to be “ejecta” from the blast.

“It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater,” Tsuda said.

The touchdown is the last major part of Hayabusa2’s mission, and when the probe returns to Earth next year scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life from its samples.

“I’m really looking forward to analysing these materials,” Yoshikawa said.

The Hayabusa2 mission has attracted international attention, with Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May sending a video to the probe’s team ahead of the landing.

“The world is watching. We love you, take care Hayabusa2,” the musician told the team.

At about the size of a large refrigerator and equipped with solar panels to keep it powered, Hayabusa2 is the successor to JAXA’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa — Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned with dust samples from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

Hayabusa2’s photos of Ryugu, which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale, show the asteroid has a rough surface full of boulders.

The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014, and has a price tag of around 30 billion yen ($270 million).

It has already made history, including with the creation of the crater on Ryugu’s surface.

In 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact project succeeded in creating an artificial crater on a comet but only for observation purposes. </s> TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2019) Japanese asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 has successfully performed its second landing on the surface of asteroid Ryugu, Japanese space agency JAXA said on Thursday.

"July 11 at 10:51 JST [01:51 GMT]: Gate 5 check. The state of the spacecraft is normal and the touchdown sequence was performed as scheduled. Project Manager Tsuda has declared that the 2nd touchdown was a success!" JAXA wrote on the probe's Twitter.

A webcast on the JAXA website showed that the probe began descending from an altitude of 20 kilometers (13 miles) on Wednesday, aiming to land near a crater that it created in April by firing a bullet into the asteroid's soil.

During the touchdown, the probe will collect the samples of material released from firing the projectile into the surface for bringing them to Earth.

Scientists believe that the samples, which the Japanese probe will try to collect, may shed light on how the Solar System was created and how life appeared on Earth.

Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014 and is expected to return to Earth in 2020.

Ryugu is currently over 300 million kilometers away from Earth. </s> TOKYO (AFP) - Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe touched down on a distant asteroid on Thursday (July 11), the country’s space agency said, on a mission to collect samples that could shed light on the history of the solar system.

“The control room received Doppler data showing that the probe appears to have touched down successfully,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) spokesman Takayuki Tomobe told Agence France-Presse.

“But Doppler only shows the speed and altitude so we will need definitive confirmation,” he added. Additional data readings are expected later in the day.

A successful landing on the Ryugu asteroid, about 300 million kilometres from Earth, would make it the second time the probe has touched down on the asteroid as part of a complex mission that has also involved sending rovers and robots.

A livestream of JAXA’s control room for the mission showed scientists standing nervously watching monitors with incoming data as the probe neared Ryugu.

As the data came in showing the apparently successful touchdown, agency officials broke into applause and shook hands with each other.

The much-anticipated touchdown was only brief, and intended to allow Hayabusa2 to collect samples blasted from beneath Ryugu’s surface.

The mission hopes the samples could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth, some 4.6 billion years ago.

To get at those crucial materials, an "impactor" was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in April, in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid's surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

"This is the second touchdown, but doing a touchdown is a challenge whether it's the first or the second," Mr Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, told reporters ahead of the mission.

"The whole team will do our best so that we'll be able to complete the operation," he said.

Hayabusa2's first touchdown was in February, when it landed briefly on Ryugu and fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.

The second touchdown requires special preparations because any problems could mean the probe loses the precious materials already gathered during its first landing.

A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2's camera shows that parts of the asteroid's surface are covered with materials that are "obviously different" from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters.

The probe is expected to make a brief touchdown on an area some 20m away from the centre of the crater to collect the unidentified materials believed to be "ejecta" from the blast.

"It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater," Mr Tsuda said.

The touchdown will be the last major part of Hayabusa2's mission, and when the probe returns to Earth next year, scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life from its samples.

"I'm really looking forward to analysing these materials," Mr Yoshikawa said.

The Hayabusa2 mission has attracted international attention, with Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May sending a video to the probe's team ahead of the landing.

"The world is watching. We love you, take care Hayabusa2," the iconic musician told the team.

At about the size of a large refrigerator and equipped with solar panels to keep it powered, Hayabusa2 is the successor to Jaxa's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa - Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned with dust samples from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey, and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

Hayabusa2's photos of Ryugu, which means "Dragon Palace" in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale, show the asteroid has a rough surface full of boulders.

The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014, and has a price tag of around 30 billion yen (S$376 million). The probe is scheduled to return to Earth with its samples in 2020.

But its has already made history, including with the creation of the crater on Ryugu's surface.

In 2005, Nasa's Deep Impact project succeeded in creating an artificial crater on a comet, but only for observation purposes. </s> Unmanned craft – about the size of a large refrigerator – plans to collect ground samples, some 300 million kilometres from Earth

This article is more than 1 month old

This article is more than 1 month old

A Japanese spacecraft has successfully landed on a distant asteroid where it hopes to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system.

Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) observing the landing from a control room on the southern island of Tanegashima applauded and made “V” for victory signs after the Hayabusa2 probe landed on the asteroid on Thursday morning local time.

“The touchdown is successful,” Jaxa spokesman Takayuki Tomobe said.

The agency said the probe had been working normally above Ryugu asteroid, some 300m km (185m miles) from Earth.

Its landing is the second time the probe has touched down on the desolate asteroid as part of a complex mission that has also involved sending rovers and robots.

HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) [PPTD] July 11 at 10:51 JST: Gate 5 check. The state of the spacecraft is normal and the touchdown sequence was performed as scheduled. Project Manager Tsuda has declared that the 2nd touchdown was a success!

The mission hopes to collect pristine materials from beneath the surface of the asteroid that could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth 4.6bn years ago. The agency said it would be the first time a probe has taken particles from below the surface of an asteroid.

To get at those crucial materials, in April an “impactor” was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid’s surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

Jaxa said the samples could contain organic materials and water.

“This is the second touchdown, but doing a touchdown is a challenge whether it’s the first or the second,” Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, told reporters ahead of the mission.

“The whole team will do our best so that we’ll be able to complete the operation,” he said.

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe to fire pellet at asteroid to obtain samples Read more

Hayabusa2’s first touchdown was in February, when it landed briefly on Ryugu and fired 5g pellet at more than 1,050km per hour (650mph) into the asteroid’s surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.

Thursday’s second touchdown required special preparations because any problems could have meant the probe lost the precious materials already gathered during its first landing.

The probe began its descent on Wednesday from its usual stationary position 20km above the asteroid, and is believed to have touched down on a targeted area located about 20 metres from the artificial crater’s centre.

During its brief time on the asteroid, Hayabusa2 collected samples from the crater formed in February via a tube that retrieved the unidentified “ejecta” as it floated up.

A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2’s camera showed that parts of the asteroid’s surface are covered with materials that are “obviously different” from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters. “I’m really looking forward to analysing these materials.”

Tsuda said: “It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater.”

The probe will return to Earth next year, when scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life from its samples.

At about the size of a large refrigerator and powered by solar panels, Hayabusa2 is the successor to Jaxa’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa – Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned with dust samples from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

Hayabusa2’s photos of Ryugu, which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale, show the asteroid has a rough surface full of boulders.

The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 at a cost of around 30bn yen ($270m). It reached its stationary position above Ryugu in June last year after travelling 3.2bn km on an elliptical orbit around the sun for more than three years, according to Kyodo news agency.

If the rest of its historical mission goes to plan, Hayabusa2 will return to its landing site in Woomera, South Australia, at the end of 2020.

In 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact project succeeded in creating an artificial crater on a comet but only for observation purposes. </s> The fact that most drivers occasionally have trouble maneuvering a car into a tight space makes it all the more remarkable that the very same species has just parked a satellite onto a small boulder-strewn asteroid hurtling through the universe millions of miles from Earth.

The astonishing feat was achieved by Japan’s space agency (JAXA) at about 3 p.m. PT on February 21 when it landed Hayabusa2 on the asteroid Ryugu.

The successful touchdown on the 900-meter-wide space rock was met with enthusiastic applause at JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center near Tokyo, and allowed the team to proceed to the next stage of the highly complex mission, which should ultimately see a sample from the space rock returned to Earth.

Shortly before descending onto Ryugu, Hayabusa2 fired what is essentially a 2-kilogram bullet into the asteroid in a bid to throw up particles that it’s now attempting to collect. JAXA has confirmed that the bullet fired as planned, though we’re still waiting for news about whether the rock sample has been successfully gathered.

Next, Hayabusa2 will return to its home position a short distance from the asteroid, a maneuver that’s expected to take around 11 hours to complete.

Easily the second most astonishing moment of the day’s events was the unexpected appearance of Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May in JAXA’s live video feed.

Just minutes before Hayabusa2 touched down, the space enthusiast wished the team “absolutely the best of luck in this incredibly delicate maneuver,” adding, “My heart is with you … we love you Hayabusa2.”

Hayabusa2 reached Ryugu in June 2018 after a journey of three-and-a-half years. Since arriving, it’s been staying close to the asteroid, tracking it as it hurtles through space.

It’s also been carrying out various exploratory activities, and in September successfully deployed two rovers onto the rock. The rovers have been capturing close-up images of their surroundings, and performing tasks such as taking temperature readings of the asteroid’s surface.

If all goes to plan, the sample collected by Hayabusa2 is expected to reach Earth toward the end of 2020, with scientists hoping the asteroid particles will offer new insight into the development of our planet, our solar system, and possibly beyond.
JAXA's Hayabusa2 space probe makes its second successful and final landing on Apollo asteroid 162173 Ryugu.