Posted on 12/05/2020 3:15:26 PM PST by BenLurkin
Locked within the capsule is the first ever subsurface sample from an asteroid. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed that the 16-inch container had touched down on the flat, ochre plains of the Woomera Prohibited Area more than 200 miles southeast of Coober Pedy at approximately 4:37 a.m. local time (10:07 a.m. PT, Saturday).
The landing is the culmination of a decade of work by JAXA scientists and engineers, and it comes six years after Hayabusa2, which is about the size of a washing machine, departed Earth. The spacecraft travelled over 3.2 billion miles on its journey to near-Earth asteroid Ryugu and back, spending over a year using specialized cameras, radar and an infrared imager to survey the spinning top-shaped rock. On two occasions in 2019, it collected samples from the surface in brief snatch-and-go maneuvers.
The Australian Space Agency and the Department of Defense (DOD) played a significant role in the capsule's safe return. The DOD manages the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA), a huge swathe of land, about half the size of the United Kingdom, where the capsule was guided after release from Hayabusa2 on Saturday. Road closures kept residents from passing through the region for almost 12 hours, as a precautionary measure.
JAXA engineers tightened the final landing zone to an area about one-tenth that size, with some deft maneuvering while the spacecraft was traveling back to Earth.
The sample entered the Earth's atmosphere moving at about 7.5 miles per second, but as it hit the dense atmosphere it slowed down to around 110 yards per second, throwing off its heat shield and deploying its parachute. After gliding for about 20 minutes, it landed on the red, Mars-like plains of the WPA.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Yes, the Oscar. Pretty damn good fighter.
Thanks. Much appreciated!
The man is a phenomenon!
You’re right, as the camera panned the crowd, an estimate of a hundred thousand isn’t too high.
MAGA!
The Donald draws crowds of 100K while Joe Biden as so called “president elect” can’t draw a crowd of 100 ?
No way this election is over.
It could get very dicey over the next few weeks.
74 million people refuse to be disenfranchised by these Trotskyite crooks! Even judges are afraid of these commie ba$tards, and if a few judges do not step up, it could be very violent likely, om qa scale that would make Seattle and Portland ANTIFA and BLM rioting and looting look like kids in a play pen.
May It Be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhm-4kDBhio
Took a while to find it. I didn’t see the movie. Must rectify that.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Cattle_droving_%283552928694%29.jpg
A mob of cattle crossing the MacIntyre River from Queensland to New South Wales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbm60mi7Bw
he’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are...
A motorcycle spaceship?
Damn
Lunar crotch rocket san
Beautiful...thanks for sharing.
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