Hayabusa-2: Japan Spacecraft Touches down on Asteroid

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Link: Hayabusa-2: Japan spacecraft touches down on asteroid [bBC News]

 

A Japanese spacecraft has touched down on an asteroid in an attempt to collect a sample of rock from the surface.

 

The Hayabusa-2 probe was trying to grab the sample from a pre-chosen site on the asteroid Ryugu just before 23:00 GMT on 21 February.

 

The spacecraft reached asteroid Ryugu in June 2018 after a three-and-a-half-year journey from Earth.

 

It is expected to return to Earth with the rocky material it has cached in 2020.

 

During sample collection, the spacecraft was set to approach the 1km-wide asteroid with an instrument called the sampler horn. On touchdown, a 5g projectile made of the metal tantalum should have been fired into the rocky surface at 300m/s.

 

The particles kicked up by the impact should be caught by the sampler horn.

 

The spacecraft began descending from its "home position" of 20km above the asteroid's surface in the early hours of 21 February (GMT) - several hours later than planned. However, controllers said they would slightly increase the speed of descent down to 5km, so that the original touchdown time was not affected.

 

Ryugu belongs to a particularly primitive type of space rock known as a C-type. The near-Earth asteroid (NEA) is a relic left over from the early days of our Solar System.

 

Prof Alan Fitzsimmons, from Queen's University Belfast, told BBC News: "We think we understand how carbon-rich asteroids migrate from the asteroid belt to become near-Earth asteroids, but the samples from Ryugu will allow its history to be explored.

 

"After the Rosetta mission, it's now clear that most of Earth's water did not come from comets in the early days of the Solar System. We believe carbon-rich (C-type) asteroids may have significant amounts of water locked up in their rocks. It's possible such asteroids may have brought to Earth both the water and the organic material necessary for life to start....