Japan probe Hayabusa2 makes asteroid landing

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TOKYO, Feb 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Japanese probe sent to examine an
asteroid 300 million kilometres from the Earth for clues about the origin of
life and the solar system landed successfully on Friday, scientists said.

Data from the probe, Hayabusa2, showed changes in speed and direction,
indicating it had touched down on the asteroid and was blasting back to its
orbiting position, according to officials from the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA).

A live webcast of the control room showed dozens of JAXA staff members
nervously monitoring data ahead of the touchdown before exploding into
applause after receiving a signal from the probe, Hayabusa2, that it had
landed.

“We confirmed the touchdown,” JAXA spokeswoman Chisato Ikuta told AFP.

Ikuta said the control centre had “received data that shows that the probe
is working normally and is healthy.”

Scientists are continuing to gather and analyse data from the probe, she
said.

The probe was due to fire a bullet at the Ryugu asteroid, to stir up
surface matter, which the probe will then collect for analysis back on Earth.

The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic
matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was
born.

Hayabusa2 will eventually fire an “impactor” to blast out material from
underneath Ryugu’s surface, allowing the collection of “fresh” materials
unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation.

Scientists hope those samples may provide answers to some fundamental
questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space
helped give rise to life on Earth.

After the landing, the probe was to return to its orbit above Ryugu, with
further touchdowns planned for later in the year.

– Spinning-top shape –

Communication with Hayabusa2 is cut off at times because its antennas are
not always pointed towards Earth and it could take several more days to
confirm the bullet was actually fired to allow the collection of samples.

The mission has not been completely plain sailing and the probe’s landing
was originally scheduled for last year.

But it was pushed back after surveys found the asteroid’s surface was more
rugged than initially thought, forcing JAXA to take more time to find a
suitable landing site.

The Hayabusa2 mission, with a price tag of around 30 billion yen ($270
million), was launched in December 2014 and is scheduled to return to Earth
with its samples in 2020.

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 an
asteroid shaped a bit like a spinning top with a rough surface.

Hayabusa2 observes the surface of the asteroid with its camera and sensing
equipment but has also dispatched two tiny MINERVA-II rover robots as well as
the French-German robot MASCOT to help surface observation.

Scientists are already receiving data from these probes deployed on the
surface of the asteroid.

The 10-kilogramme (22-pound) observation robot MASCOT is loaded with
sensors, and can take images at multiple wavelengths, investigate minerals
with a microscope, gauge surface temperatures and measure magnetic fields.

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

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