Posted on 09/21/2018 6:22:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Japan's Hayabusa2 probe, which has been circling the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) asteroid Ryugu since late June, deployed two little "rovers" called MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B at 12:05 a.m. EDT (0405 GMT) today (Sept. 21). The event occurred when the mother ship was about 180 feet (55 meters) above Ryugu's pockmarked, boulder-strewn surface, mission team members said. "The separation of MINERVA-II1 has been confirmed! The state of the spacecraft is normal," JAXA officials announced via Twitter just after the rovers deployed.
That confirmation came after an apparently tense descent for Hayabusa2 flight controllers. "In the control room, you can hear the sound of deep breaths around the room," JAXA officials wrote just before the rovers were released.
JAXA officials confirmed a clear signal from the MINERVA-II1 rovers after they were deployed, but did lose contact due to asteroid Ryugu's rotation before they could confirm any images from the landing itself.
"This is probably due to the rotation to Ryugu, and MINERVA-II1 is now on the far side of the asteroid," JAXA officials said. "We are currently working to confirm if there are images capturing the MINERVA-II1 landing."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Good flick!
It was a Whacko-Environmentalist’s Wet Dream flick.................
But Dern turns in a bravura performance.
I don’t recognize that movie. What is it?
Yes, because he is one and so is his daughter..........
≡≡8-O
Thanks for posting. That is one great animation in that article. For an “old” guy like me, it makes me remember fondly what inspired me to become an Engineer (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo).
And - I think if we did more stuff like that, and gave it enough coverage, instead of women accusing judges of stuff, we might climb back on top of the heap, so to speak.
Just remember that is what they want to do................
Huey, Dewey and Louie...funny...[snort]
Congratulations to JAXA and the Japanese engineering and astro physics team for their successful planning and execution of a difficult space mission.
Thanks for the posting the Japs (derogatory reference not intended) have been moving forward on these very seriouus type of space explorations which is being covered by John Batchelor.
It would be useful if there were postings on their developments of monitors (robots) they’ve developed for these space studies rather than off topic contributions of space movies robots which are a detraction.
Ben,
The Japanese have achieved greatly in space. But you would never know it.
The landed a spacecraft on a asteroid, grabbed a sample, and landed that sample in the Australian desert. No small feat!
Did you know that some of the Mercury engineers are still around?
Happened to come across one in a museum a few months ago.
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