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Japan's Hayabusa 2 Spacecraft Reaches Cosmic 'Diamond' (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

A Japanese spacecraft has arrived at its target - an asteroid shaped like a diamond or, according to some, a spinning top. From a report: Hayabusa 2 has been travelling toward the space rock Ryugu since launching from the Tanegashima spaceport in 2014. It is on a quest to study the object close-up and deliver rocks and soil from Ryugu to Earth. It will use explosives to propel a projectile into Ryugu, digging out a fresh sample from beneath the surface. Dr Makoto Yoshikawa, Hayabusa 2's mission manager, talked about the plan now that the spacecraft had arrived at its destination. "At first, we will study very carefully the surface features. Then we will select where to touch down. Touchdown means we get the surface material," he told me. A copper projectile, or "impactor" will separate from the spacecraft, floating down to the surface of the asteroid. Once Hayabusa 2 is safely out of the way, an explosive charge will detonate, driving the projectile into the surface.

15 comments

  1. Ryu Hayabusa? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Funny

    >> Hayabusa 2 has been travelling toward the space rock Ryugu

    Did someone intentionally sprinkle the name "Ryu Hayabusa" into mission? I have a bad feeling about this...

    1. Re:Ryu Hayabusa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait we cna't go back to the moon, but we are landing on asteroids far away ??? It took from 2014 to get there? We wil ltake samples and comeback WTF? Is it video game they are talking about?

    2. Re:Ryu Hayabusa? by srmalloy · · Score: 1

      The system requirements for a spacecraft that doesn't have to keep one or more humans alive inside it for the duration of the mission are so orders of magnitude smaller, because you can send them in low-fuel orbits that take years to reach their target. We still haven't worked out the logistics of a life-support system that's closed enough to make long-duration trips without resupply viable, and we are still working on the issues of long-term exposure to microgravity and radiation. Working with transmisison lag ranging from minutes to hours requires more 'intelligence' built into the craft, but protecting that from damage is a procedural problem, which existing probes have demonstrated is a reasonably well-solved concern.It doesn't make them the perfect substitute -- the issues with Philae attaching itself to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko resulting in its coming to rest in shadow where its solar panels were ineffective demonstrates this -- but we can put robotic probes out to distances far beyond where we could deploy and return a live crew.

    3. Re:Ryu Hayabusa? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Robotic probes are cool and give good science, but still... it feels somehow like not pushing hard enough. There's a whole solar system out there to explore and exploit, and probes aren't going to do much exploiting. We should be out there to witness glorious new landscapes, then level them and build supermarkets on Mars.

    4. Re:Ryu Hayabusa? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      With the current budget, a robotic probe is the best we can do. And even if the budget was 1000 times bigger, we could do a lot more with 100 advanced probes than with a single human mission.

  2. Ryu-cy in the Sky, with diamonds by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Beatles must be very happy. It's "Ryu-cy in the sky, with diamonds."

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  3. So Some Anime Storyline Here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like.

    1. Re:So Some Anime Storyline Here? by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 1

      not until the probe disturbs the space creature that is inside the asteroid waking it up after millions of years and it can be seen flying towards the earth.
      Then it is Anime ;)

      --
      âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    2. Re: So Some Anime Storyline Here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Waking her up...

    3. Re:So Some Anime Storyline Here? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      We have to warn Fort Charles that this is coming!

  4. Oh shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this is where we launched all copies of creimer's ebooks. Please do not bring them back, we just got rid of them!

  5. That name, and we're collecting samples by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ryugu? It's probably a folklore reference, but still: too perfect.

    YOU GONNA' GET TAKEN HOME.

  6. *BOOM* by Diakoneo · · Score: 1

    Blowing up something space? Sounds like a job for the new Space Force!!!!

    --
    "Just as there is nothing so unreal as reality TV, there is nothing as unsocial as social media." - Alistair Dabbs
  7. Perfect sci-fi material by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Hayabusa 2 will spend about a year and a half surveying the 900m-wide space rock, which is about 290 million km (180 million miles) from Earth." ...
    "Once Hayabusa 2 is safely out of the way, an explosive charge will detonate, driving the projectile into the surface." ... it was then that humanity realized its folly. The once-harmless small giant was put onto a collision course with the 15km-wide Megacrag. 10 years later, Earth was engulfed in a firestorm when the Megacrag smashed into the San Francisco Bay and threw up billions of tons of molten rock. Today, a handful of survivors living underground cling to life as their rations dwindle.

  8. Movie Plot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is how some horror sci-fi movies begin....