We've done our 1st Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM01) on June 8 ~12:30-13:40 JST. Using thrusters, Hayabusa2 was accelerated by ~24cm/s (-x), 5cm/s (-y), 14cm/s (z). The distance from the spacecraft to the asteroid was ~1900km & the relative speed after TCM01 was ~2.35m/s.[/font][/size]https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1005080912340512768 (https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1005080912340512768)
DCAM 3(google translation)
Isolated camera
It is a camera separated from the main unit. DCAM was first adopted in solar sail experiment machine "Ikaros". Hayabusa 2 uses a collision device, impactor to expose samples of deep underground asteroids, but it is a camera that shoots the situation. Two of digital cameras and analog cameras are installed.
We shoot so that both analog cameras that can acquire continuous images with low resolution and digital cameras that can intermittently acquire high resolution images will compensate each other.
We're now less than 1000km from Ryugu! The asteroid is so close, we've had to change our website header so you can see the approach trajectory: the horizontal scale is now 10 x larger than the vertical scale.https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1006669149832077312
first hints of surface features from 700 km
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20180616je/index.html
Looks curiously diamond shaped.
The diamond shape was attributed to material sliding toward its equator as its rotation was spun up by the Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack (YORP) effect, involving different radiation pressures over the night and day sides. If this is what really happened, this means Steins is a porous ‘rubble pile’ body like Itokawa. The spin-up and slippage of material would have obliterated the previously existing craters, thereby ‘rejuvenating’ the surface of the asteroid.
Looks curiously diamond shaped.
I think we'll find there are large craters that make it appear diamond shaped at this distance.
We are only a week away now. Can we get a discussion thread going to keep the update thread quiet (or change the title of this thread to include discussions)? Yes, I know I added to the noise....
Asteroid (162173) Ryugu is the target object of Hayabusa2, an asteroid exploration and sample return mission led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ground-based observations indicate that Ryugu is a C-type near-Earth asteroid with a diameter of less than 1 km, but the knowledge of its detailed properties is still very limited. This paper summarizes our best understanding of the physical and dynamical properties of Ryugu based on remote sensing and theoretical modeling. This information is used to construct a design reference model of the asteroid that is used for formulation of mission operations plans in advance of asteroid arrival. Particular attention is given to the surface properties of Ryugu that are relevant to sample acquisition. This reference model helps readers to appropriately interpret the data that will be directly obtained by Hayabusa2 and promotes scientific studies not only for Ryugu itself and other small bodies but also for the Solar System evolution that small bodies shed light on.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx and JAXA's Hayabusa2 sample-return missions are currently on their way to encounter primitive near-Earth asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, respectively. Spectral and dynamical evidence indicates that these near-Earth asteroids originated in the inner part of the main belt. There are several primitive collisional families in this region, and both these asteroids are most likely to have originated in the Polana-Eulalia family complex. We present the expected spectral characteristics of both targets based on our studies of our primitive collisional families in the inner belt: Polana-Eulalia, Erigone, Sulamitis, and Clarissa. Observations were obtained in the framework of our PRIMitive Asteroids Spectroscopic Survey (PRIMASS). Our results are especially relevant to the planning and interpretation of in-situ images and spectra to be obtained by the two spacecraft during the encounters with their targets.
MINERVA can hop from one location to another using two DC motors – the first serving as a torquer, rotating an internal mass that leads to a resulting force, sufficient to make the rover hop for several meters. The second motor rotates the table on which the torquer is placed in order to control the direction of the hop. The rover reaches a top speed of 9 centimeters per second, allowing it to hop a considerable distance. Communications with the Hayabusa spacecraft are accomplished at data rates of up to 9,600 bits per second.
I read that the water found on comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko by Rosetta/Philae was slightly different, which meant that comets like it could not have brought water to Earth.
The temperature-difference powered bi-metal actuator? When the sun shines on it it pops from one position to the other.links and discussion moved to new thread:
MINERAVA is a 15cm cube (about 6 inches) and weighs 900g (2lb)
From now on, the asteroid's gravity will dominate the area (Hill area: within about 90 km from the asteroid) will enter![/size]
Oh my, we see a Ceres moment on Ryugu - white spots!
And knowing this asteroid is less than 1km in diameter, that's quite surprising.
Could anybody please add a link to update thread in first post?Anybody?
Our 7th Trajectory Control Manoeuvre (TCM07) for optical navigation was made on June 22, 2018 from around 09:30~10:40 JST. Thrusters game a velocity change of 2 cm/s (-x), 1 cm/s (+y) and 31 cm/s (+z). The distance from the spacecraft to Ryugu at the TCM was 45 km.
Our 8th Trajectory Control Manoeuvre (TMC08) for optical navigation was made on June 24, 2018 from ~09:30-09:40 JST. Trusters gave a velocity change of ~0.2cm/3 (+y), 2cm/s (+z). The distance to Ryugu from Hayabusa2 was 38km & the relative speed after TCM08 was ~0.08 m/s (8 cm/s)https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1010759732515098625 (http://"https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1010759732515098625")
I can't understand why nobody talks about the 3 japanese rovers (MINERVA-II 1a, 1b and 2), what they will do, when they will do it,....
I can't understand why nobody talks about the 3 japanese rovers (MINERVA-II 1a, 1b and 2), what they will do, when they will do it,....
Perhaps they're just cautious after losing their first Minerva a decade ago... and they don't want to generate unnecessary hype.
This table was used as a PLAN for the simulator, but regularly updated with real data after each TCM:
Is there a list of when and the effect of the trajectory correction maneuvers as only some of them have been covered in this thread?
Thanks.
Last week we performed short-term operations at an altitude of about 6 km.
This allowed closer observations of Ryugu in more detail and the data downlink is happening now.
For scale, what is the diameter of the large crater?
For scale, what is the diameter of the large crater?about 200m
For scale, what is the diameter of the large crater?about 200m
A nice artist's impression of Ryugu next to Mount Fuji with Tokyo in the foreground has been created recently:
Here are the schedule-related slides directly.
Only the full text schedule is translated below. July 17-23 is Box-C Operations, August 1-2 is Medium Descent Operations, August 6-7 is Gravity Measurement Operations.
Edit: Note that this suggest that Hayabusa2 should be on the move, but the visualization at http://hayabusa2.jaxa.jp suggests it's still at 20km. However, the trajectory information for that visualization hasn't been updated since June 26, and is currently programmed to hold at 20km forever after June 27.
Flying Over Asteroid Ryugu"Simulated"?!? Is the 3d model already that detailed?
This simulated flyover
[TD1-R1] Today (Sept. 11) at 15:46 JST, Hayabusa2 was confirmed to have began the descent from the home position (about 20km altitude) as planned. The onboard time when the descent started was 15:27.
The first touchdown by Hayabusa2 to collect samples from the asteroid surface is planned for the end of October. The first rehearsal for this operation will be held from September 10 – 12. “Touchdown 1 Rehearsal 1” is abbreviated to TD1-R1. At TD1-R1, the Hayabusa2 will approach the surface of Ryugu to an altitude of less than 40 m. The spacecraft will then rise without landing. The purpose of this rehearsal is to monitor the operation of the spacecraft during touchdown and investigate the safety of the touchdown candidate sites by imaging the surface of Ryugu in their vicinity from a low altitude. The schedule for the TD1-R1 operation is shown in the table below. The actual operation will occur while assessing the situation at that time, so do note that procedures may not always be on schedule.
This week we will deploy the MINERVA-II1 rovers! Tomorrow (Sept 19) is the preparatory operation prior to the descent and on the 20th, the spacecraft will start descending towards Ryugu. The separation of MINERVA-II1 is scheduled for the 21st. (Hayabusa2 Project)
In Minerva rovers there are 4 different locomotion system to be tested: motors, springs, whatelse,..
http://mineta-lab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/HAYABUSA2.html (http://mineta-lab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/HAYABUSA2.html)
http://www.dlr.de/pf/Portaldata/6/Resources/lcpm/abstracts/Abstract_Yoshimitsu_T.pdf (http://www.dlr.de/pf/Portaldata/6/Resources/lcpm/abstracts/Abstract_Yoshimitsu_T.pdf)
http://www.astro.mech.tohoku.ac.jp/~nagaoka/papers/2016isairas_knaga1.pdf (http://www.astro.mech.tohoku.ac.jp/~nagaoka/papers/2016isairas_knaga1.pdf)
Preliminary proposal from Yoshimitsu/Kubota:
http://www.hayabusa.isas.jaxa.jp/kawalab/astro/pdf/2013C_8.pdf (http://www.hayabusa.isas.jaxa.jp/kawalab/astro/pdf/2013C_8.pdf)
Old study dated 2005:
http://ewh.ieee.org/conf/ras2005/workshops/PlanetaryRovers/08kubota/_kubota-WF-01-08.pdf (http://ewh.ieee.org/conf/ras2005/workshops/PlanetaryRovers/08kubota/_kubota-WF-01-08.pdf)
Previous version (Minerva I on Hayabusa 1):
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9495/4d807e7fa94897a36cb0a9af6112f16ed417.pdf (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9495/4d807e7fa94897a36cb0a9af6112f16ed417.pdf)
How to find them once they move?!?
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tjsass/59/3/59_T-15-58/_pdf (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tjsass/59/3/59_T-15-58/_pdf)
PRE-ARRIVAL DEPLOYMENT ANALYSIS AND TRAJECTORY RECONSTRUCTION OF HAYABUSA2 ROVERS (https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2018/pdf/1400.pdf)
【MINERVA - Ⅱ 1】 September 20 21: 03 JST: The altitude of the spacecraft is about 10 km. Round-trip propagation delay is 35 minutes 22.6 seconds.
【MINERVA - Ⅱ 1】 September 20 22: 30 JST: The height of the spacecraft has cut off 8 km.
It is operated 24 hours a day on a daily basis. Shifts have shifted to a shift in late night.
【MINERVA - Ⅱ 1】 September 20 23: 50 JST: The altitude of the spacecraft is about 6 km. This time it is the fifth time to get off to this altitude.
The picture is a ryugu photographed with ONC - W1 around 23: 20 (JST). It is about 320 million km away from the earth.
MINERVA - Ⅱ 1】 September 21 02: 30 JST: The altitude of the spacecraft (distance from the surface of the ryugu) has cut 4 km.
https://twitter.com/haya2_jaxa/status/1042828459121172480QuoteMINERVA - Ⅱ 1】 September 21 02: 30 JST: The altitude of the spacecraft (distance from the surface of the ryugu) has cut 4 km.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】9月21日 05:20JST：探査機の高度が3kmを切りました。JAXA相模原キャンパスでは、外が明るくなってきました。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] September 21 05:20 JST: The altitude of the spacecraft has passed below 3km. At the Sagamihara JAXA campus it's getting brighter outside.(Implying morning is approaching so the sky is getting brighter.)
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】9月21日 11:50JST：探査機の高度が約600mを切りました。最低高度を更新しました。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] September 21, 11:50 JST: The altitude of the spacecraft has passed below about 600m. The minimum altitude record has been broken.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】航法用画像のリアルタイム配信ですが、復旧しました。しばらく止まってしまって申し訳ありませんでした。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] The realtime delivery of navigation images has been restored. We apologize for it having stopped for a short time. http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/galleries/onc/nav20180920/ …
I attached an mkv mjpeg of the descent images so far and a lower quality gif (with optimized palette). I'll try to keep it updated when not sleeping/at work.
Do we have a rough UTC for touchdown confirmation?
Do we have a rough UTC for touchdown confirmation?
It's not on the schedule. Release is at approximately 4:00-4:30 UTC + 17 minutes of time delay and touchdown should follow pretty soon after considering its in a downward trajectory already and its at roughly 60 meters. Considering it was traveling at 10cm/s that would equate to 10 minutes after separation. So we're looking at the range 4:27-4:57 UTC for touchdown.
Using this schedule: http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20180920e/
Do we have a rough UTC for touchdown confirmation?
It's not on the schedule. Release is at approximately 4:00-4:30 UTC + 17 minutes of time delay and touchdown should follow pretty soon after considering its in a downward trajectory already and its at roughly 60 meters. Considering it was traveling at 10cm/s that would equate to 10 minutes after separation. So we're looking at the range 4:27-4:57 UTC for touchdown.
Using this schedule: http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20180920e/
I may be wrong here. Looking at the diagram they halt downward velocity at 60 meters and go into freefall and shut off the engines. So the fall rate won't be constant. I'll need to calculate fall rate assuming 0 initial velocity and Ryugu's gravity.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】リュウグウ上に見える はやぶさ２の影も徐々に濃くなってきました。探査機の高度は400mを切りました。
※画像は地上受信時刻 UTC 2018-09-21 03:05のものです。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] The shadow of the Hayabusa 2 seen on the Ryugu is gradually getting darker.
The altitude of the spacecraft has passed below 400m.
* The image's ground receive time is UTC 2018-09-21 03:05.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】はや２NOW(リアリタイム運用モニタ)も見てください。
航法カメラに映るリュウグウの大きさもずいぶん大きいです。
http://haya2now.jp/
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] Please look at haya2now (realtime operation monitor).
The size of the Ryugu as seen in the navigation camera is quite large. http://haya2now.jp/
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】9月21日 12:25JST：Gate3チェックを実施し、自律降下フェーズへの移行を「可」と判断しました。
探査機は、約300mの高度まで降下しています。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] September 21 12:25 JST: Gate3 Check was performed and the transition to the autonomous descent phase was determined to be "accepted". The probe has descended to an altitude of about 300m.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】9月21日 12:58JST：探査機の高度が200mを切ったことを地上で確認しました。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] September 21 12:58 JST: We've confirmed on the ground that the altitude of the probe has passed below 200m.
JAXA live:
<snip>
Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1042987900139257856
At 0400 UTC, a couple of minutes ago, Hayabusa-2 was reported to have passed the 200 m mark. If the lander is ejected at about 50m, and descent continues at 0.1 m/s, that would imply ejection is only half an hour from now
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】9月21日 13:17 JST：探査機の高度表示はいよいよ100mを切りました。
管制室では深呼吸の音があちこちから聞こえます。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] September 21, 2008 13:17 JST: The altitude indication from the spacecraft has finally passed below 100m. In the control room, you can hear the sound of deep breaths here and there.("Deep breaths" in this sense means taking deep breaths to calm down extreme nervousness.)
We should be hitting the 60m thrust point momentarily here.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】
Heeeeeeere weeeeee cooooome!!!!!!!!!
Deploy success it seems!
https://twitter.com/payapima/status/1042997246071988227
会見室からはやぶさ２管制室。13時33分ごろ拍手が起きたので、ミネルバⅡ１分離成功かと。このあと14時からブリーフィング予定。
The Hayabusa 2 control room from the conference room. Applause happened around 13:33, so MinervaII 1 separation was a success. The briefing is scheduled to be at 14:00.
【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】9月21日 13:35JST：MINERVA-II-1を分離したことを確認しました。探査機の状態は正常です。
[MINERVA-Ⅱ 1] September 21 13:35 JST: We've confirmed that MINERVA-II 1 has separated. The state of the spacecraft is normal.
I attached an mkv mjpeg of the descent images so far and a lower quality gif (with optimized palette). I'll try to keep it updated when not sleeping/at work.
Communication with MINERVA-II1 has currently stopped. This is probably due to the rotation to Ryugu, and MINERVA-II1 is now on the far side of the asteroid. We are currently working to confirm if there are images capturing the MINERVA-II1 landing.
QuoteCommunication with MINERVA-II1 has currently stopped. This is probably due to the rotation to Ryugu, and MINERVA-II1 is now on the far side of the asteroid. We are currently working to confirm if there are images capturing the MINERVA-II1 landing.
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1043072755321585665 (https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1043072755321585665)
I hope this is not an inappropriate place for this question. I was reviewing the images from the approach over the last 24 hours. Is the spin that is seen due to the orbit of the probe around Ryugu, or the spin of the asteroid itself?
This is fantastically exciting, and I wish the team all the best in their efforts.
It is in a solar station-keeping orbit, remaining always on the Sun-facing side of Ryugu.I don't understand why they are intentionally totally "deleting" shadows during all operations.
Japan joined a very elite club of countries - those that have studied a celestial body with a mobile landing platform. Before the Ryugu landing, only USSR, USA and China have sent rovers to an alien surface.
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1043486871504867329
HAYABUSA2@JAXA @haya2e_jaxa
This dynamic photo was captured by Rover-1A on September 22 at around 11:44 JST. It was taken on Ryugu's surface during a hop. The left-half is the surface of Ryugu, while the white region on the right is due to sunlight. (Hayabusa2 Project)
22:07 - 2018年9月22日
Japan joined a very elite club of countries - those that have studied a celestial body with a mobile landing platform. Before the Ryugu landing, only USSR, USA and China have sent rovers to an alien surface.
And of course ESA (Huygens on Titan and more recently Philae on 67p Churyumov-Gerasimenko)...
Great success for Japan however. Really impressive and worth the try after so much difficulties during Hayabusa 1 mission.
I am not aware of any other space missions that have returned a sample to Earth from the surface of another body.Luna 16, 20, and 24, as well as Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 would like a word.
I am not aware of any other space missions that have returned a sample to Earth from the surface of another body.Luna 16, 20, and 24, as well as Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 would like a word.
And Hayabusa-1 was successful in bringing back a sample of its target asteroid, even though it was minute. Useful scientific results were obtained from it. I am not aware of any other space missions that have returned a sample to Earth from the surface of another body. NASA's Stardust mission returned comet tail particles. If Hayabusa-2 is also successful, Japan will have accomplished this twice. And they were/are considering Phobos.I'm assuming they will use same technology even vehicles for Phobos.
NASA's OSIRIS mission is scheduled to reach its target in another 2 years, with a budget of $800 million. Budget for Hayabusa-2 is $146 million.
NASA's OSIRIS mission is scheduled to reach its target in another 2 years, with a budget of $800 million. Budget for Hayabusa-2 is $146 million.This is almost certainly not an apples to apples comparison. Probably not even apples to pears. There's no question Hayabusa 2 is a great mission on a limited budget, but it's not safe to assume different agencies published "mission cost" cover the same things.
And Hayabusa-1 was successful in bringing back a sample of its target asteroid, even though it was minute. Useful scientific results were obtained from it. I am not aware of any other space missions that have returned a sample to Earth from the surface of another body. NASA's Stardust mission returned comet tail particles. If Hayabusa-2 is also successful, Japan will have accomplished this twice. And they were/are considering Phobos.
NASA's OSIRIS mission is scheduled to reach its target in another 2 years, with a budget of $800 million. Budget for Hayabusa-2 is $146 million.
what appears to be a very fish-eye image, and to tone down some of the wilder colours.It's most a panorama image than a fisheye image: FOV is 125° (http://iafastro.directory/iac/paper/id/29282/abstract-pdf/IAC-15,A3,4,5,x29282.brief.pdf?2015-04-03.15:23:20), obtained "using 8 lens", but I can't understand if 8 lens are for 8 different cameras or if they are placed sequentially to gain the 125° FOV like this:
And Hayabusa-1 was successful in bringing back a sample of its target asteroid, even though it was minute. Useful scientific results were obtained from it. I am not aware of any other space missions that have returned a sample to Earth from the surface of another body. NASA's Stardust mission returned comet tail particles. If Hayabusa-2 is also successful, Japan will have accomplished this twice. And they were/are considering Phobos.
NASA's OSIRIS mission is scheduled to reach its target in another 2 years, with a budget of $800 million. Budget for Hayabusa-2 is $146 million.
Hayabusa1 did get a few dust particles back, enough to be a success on this matter, but it was a difficult mission. They had problems with leaky thrusters, lost the first Minerva robot and the sampling mechanism did not work properly (getting dust was the lucky shot).
13 years later and this is a totally different vibe. Also, as someone replied, OSIRIS-REx will rendez-vous with Bennu and the end of the year. Both teams are working together on a daily level for scientific purposes.
Total number of the hop and distance of each hop: The 1A did 9 hops, and the 1B did 4 hops. The distance is 10-20m each. (Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, MINERVA-II1 Project Enginner /JAXA)
Names of rovers: There are 2 candidates, but it is secret yet. We’ll name on the basis of their movement. (Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, MINERVA-II1 Project Enginner /JAXA)
How are the rovers and upcoming lander being controlled? Once Hayabusa2 leaves will they be lost without it?All the landers relay through Hayabusa2, they don't have the power or antennas communicate with earth. They are very small, low power devices.
Found an unofficial transcript/translation of 27/sep press conference:
https://lizard-isana.github.io/jspt/hy2_press_conference_2018_09_27.html (https://lizard-isana.github.io/jspt/hy2_press_conference_2018_09_27.html)
Quotes:
Once rover hopped, they will re-landing in 15 minutes, then bounds several times, and finally stopped in 45 to 60 minutes after the hop. We commanded the rover to stay for an hour and take the series of the images after the re-landing.
Daily sequence of MINERVA-2: In the morning, once the electric power is obtained and the computer starts up, the communication turns on. When the communication is established with repeater(Hayabusa2), the rover enters autonomous mode and hop. If communication link continues about an hour, the daily sequence is over. If the link continues about 2 hours, the rover stay there and continues observation. The hopping occurs once a day.
20 minutes, 20 pictures, 51 meters: one picture every 2.5 meters, this will be a cool footage! At 25 FPS it will last 2 seconds. I guess it will be amazing.
Hayabusa2 began its descent towards Ryugu. MASCOT was ejected at an altitude of 51 metres
[...]
separated from the mothercraft, and made contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later."
[...]
the camera switched MASCAM on and took 20 pictures
Is that MASCOT’s own shadow in the upper right corner of the image?
It's not Hayabusa camera, it's MASCOT camera, which is on a side of the rover; I don't know how many degrees pointing down.Is that MASCOT’s own shadow in the upper right corner of the image?
Yes, it's pointed out in the tweet's caption. If the shadow is discernible in an image, it should always be in the subsolar point (brightest on Ryugu's surface) since Hayabusa-2's attitude keeps it with the cameras looking down and its "back" facing to the Sun.
It's not Hayabusa camera, it's MASCOT camera, which is on a side of the rover; I don't know how many degrees pointing down.Is that MASCOT’s own shadow in the upper right corner of the image?
Yes, it's pointed out in the tweet's caption. If the shadow is discernible in an image, it should always be in the subsolar point (brightest on Ryugu's surface) since Hayabusa-2's attitude keeps it with the cameras looking down and its "back" facing to the Sun.
https://twitter.com/landru79/status/1047297725879005186 (https://twitter.com/landru79/status/1047297725879005186)I don't understand the meaning of a fake video. :-\
I don't understand the meaning of a fake video. :-\
Second part of the video is just ...first part reversed! look at direction of rotation of Ryugu!I don't understand the meaning of a fake video. :-\
What do you mean?
Second part of the video is just ...first part reversed! look at direction of rotation of Ryugu!
Great site! Minor thing to point out though: The date is off by a month. All the most recent dates are for November, rather than October.fixed & improved:
2018/10/14-15 TD1-R1-A(second touch down rehersal)I finished (well.. almost) just in time my new simulator:
I'm still working to implement speed in the display and to move the schematic from below to the right,Hayabusa/Ryugu schematic moved to the right, but downsizing it looks a little more tricky than I thought.
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1051850996173889537 (https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1051850996173889537)I can't understand why they remained at such altitude for 2 seconds and then started an escape at ludicrous speed. Looks like an emergency command to save from crash, rather than a successful LRF testing or a "touchdown simulation"!
It would be interesting to find some documents about the procedure, maybe also from Hayabusa 1.
As I understand it the sampling will be like a touch and go, done very quickly.
Found this document about MASCOT2, which will derive from MASCOT and will explore the moon of an asteroid (Didymoon)
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20181026e_TD1R1A_ONCT/ (http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20181026e_TD1R1A_ONCT/)The image is upside down w.r.t. all the other in the "live stream" imeages released, for example:
The highest resolution image of Ryugu
(resolution update : the highest resolution image to date)
Looking at the scale on that closeup picture, the ground seems to be mostly rocks. I mean hefty rocks.
smoother version:
They also stretched the images so the video is not-so-smooth while passing from one group of images to another, I'll se what I can do for this.
It's still an open question on how hard those "rocks" really are. For all we know they could just be surface material that happens to have a slightly higher consistency.It was reported at DPS that MASCOT found some of them quite crumbly:
New amazing animation from JAXA for TD1-R1A mission:This is a REALLY good imageset for a 3d reconstruction of the landing site!
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20181026e_TD1R1A_W1movie/ (http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20181026e_TD1R1A_W1movie/)
New MASCOT image?There should also be 3d images... soon or later...
It looks there is an unplanned mission or something going on
I'm logging (https://programmi.000webhostapp.com/hayabusa2/simulator/ONC_A-log.txt)haya2now simulator data (also the invisible one "RNG_LIDAR (http://haya2now.jp/data/data.json)") since several weeks.It looks there is an unplanned mission or something going on
The spacecraft status 'dashboard (http://haya2now.jp/en.html)' shows the last data received at 1759 EDT on 27-Oct. That is 16 hours ago.
It looks there is an unplanned mission or something going on: H2 is going down at 5 cm/s since more 12 hours and has already lost around 3000 m in altitude, being currently at 17000 m.Since you are using undocumented, unsupported products that are only public as a side effect of the missions own PAO efforts, I would suggest extreme caution in drawing any conclusions from them.
"PAO"?Pubilc Affairs Office.
Press and media breifings
November, 8 (Thurs) 11:00 Press briefing @ Ochanomizu (02:00 UTC)
December 6 (Thurs) Afternoon TBD Press conference @ Sagamihara[/size]
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20181023_ver6_en.pdf (http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20181023_ver6_en.pdf)
[/font]https://twitter.com/haya2_jaxa/status/1056838918694297602 (https://twitter.com/haya2_jaxa/status/1056838918694297602)【 BOX-C 】 TD1-R3 operation is just over, we are currently operating box-c. The probe will perform low altitude observation at about 5km from tomorrow (October 30). In addition, we plan to lower the altitude further because of the shooting near the touchdown candidate Point L08.[/font]
I think that Ryugu is very dark - darker than the photos would make you think. So those markers should really stand out.this lets me think of Ceres bright spot, even visible by Hubble.
We are a little late to tweet, but operations in 2019 have already begun. The year, it is the first touchdown. Currently, touchdown is scheduled for the week of February 18th. Thank you for your continued support this year! (Hayabusa2 Project)
Reference material for press conferences.Highlights:
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/
Reference material for press conferences.
- February 12, 2019: Material-original (in Japanese) (Feb. 8, uploaded),
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20190206_ver8.pdf
Material-English translation (Feb. 12, uploaded)
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20190206_ver8_en3.pdf
• Touchdown operation plan
• Projectile firing experiment
• Scientific importance of the touchdown
Press and media briefings (GMT times):
2/20 Wed. 06:00 - Press briefing @ JAXA Ochanomizo Office
2/21 Thurs. 10:30 - Press center @ JAXA Sagamihara campus
Touchdown #haya2_TD is planned for Feb 22 ~8am JST! We will have a live web broadcast from the control room (link coming soon) with English translation. Have questions? Ask us at the #haya2_QA hashtag! (Early is fine.) (Please forgive us if we cannot get to all your questions.0
JAXA-NHK visualized live(30min delay)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkoVN_Bzkdo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkoVN_Bzkdo)
Hayabusa2 3D Trajectory Viewer
http://www.lizard-tail.com/isana/hayabusa2/misc/hy2trj3d/ (http://www.lizard-tail.com/isana/hayabusa2/misc/hy2trj3d/)
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1098599284537282561 (https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1098599284537282561)
On my side, I figured out just now that I could convert my archive images player (https://programmi.000webhostapp.com/hayabusa2/simulator/player/H2-player-index.html) into a realtime images player, but in such a short time I was only able to get this quick&dirty page...v.0.0.2: Cleaned up a bit: no more dozens of links added at the bottom of the page, but still present the bug of images getting improperly added to the "films"...
https://programmi.000webhostapp.com/hayabusa2/simulator/player/hayabusa-animator(realtime).html (https://programmi.000webhostapp.com/hayabusa2/simulator/player/hayabusa-animator(realtime).html)
While we wait: animation with all pictures from the approach until the last one half an hour ago.Interactive is better! :-)
apart from applause I didn't hear the commentary confirming touchdown, shooting and sampling.
so it's an applause just for the schedule? :)apart from applause I didn't hear the commentary confirming touchdown, shooting and sampling.
They did say applause was because "the sequence was developing as intended". Since there's no telemetry, this is as good a confirmation as it's gonna get until 20 minutes from now.
so it's an applause just for the schedule? :)
Current telemetries (generated at 22:08, recieved at 22:27 and uploaded to web at 22:50) still say "44m".
http://haya2now.jp/data/data.json
It has definitely not been an hour since hovering ops at 45m began. ???
[/list]- spacecraft:
- Bus-P: "848.720"
- CMDBitrate1: "15.625"
- CMDBitrate2: "15.625"
- COH: "COH"
- CSAS: (4) ["14.216", "-0.106", "0.019", "0.162"]
- MGA: (2) ["-85.003", "-66.000"]
- ModIndex: "0.00"
- ONC_A: "0"
- ONC_XY: (2) ["0", "0"]
- RNG_LIDAR: "44"
- RX1-Lock: "CRR+DEM"
- RX2-Lock: "CRR+DEM"
- RX-ANT1: "XMGA"
- RX-ANT2: "XLGA-A"
- RXLv1: "-98.020"
- RXLv2: "-136.043"
- THR: (12) ["61.604492", "51.817383", "1.339844", "50.022461", "24.244141", "59.817383", "33.541992", "55.672852", "54.289062", "56.135742", "45.929688", "52.457031"]
- TLMBitrate: "4096"
- TX-AMP: "XPA-A_HI"
- TX-ANT: "XHGA"
- TX-XTRP: "XTRP2"
- TxMode: "TLM"
- generatedAt: "2019-02-21T22:08:31.741Z"
- receivedAt: "2019-02-21T22:27:35.502Z"[/l][/l][/l][/l]
Could any of these telemetries be related to touchdown, shooting, sampling,...?Quote[/list]RNG_LIDAR: "44"- spacecraft:
- Bus-P: "848.720"
- CMDBitrate1: "15.625"
- CMDBitrate2: "15.625"
- COH: "COH"
- CSAS: (4) ["14.216", "-0.106", "0.019", "0.162"]
- MGA: (2) ["-85.003", "-66.000"]
- ModIndex: "0.00"
- ONC_A: "0"
- ONC_XY: (2) ["0", "0"]
- RX1-Lock: "CRR+DEM"
- RX2-Lock: "CRR+DEM"
- RX-ANT1: "XMGA"
- RX-ANT2: "XLGA-A"
- RXLv1: "-98.020"
- RXLv2: "-136.043"
- THR: (12) ["61.604492", "51.817383", "1.339844", "50.022461", "24.244141", "59.817383", "33.541992", "55.672852", "54.289062", "56.135742", "45.929688", "52.457031"]
- TLMBitrate: "4096"
- TX-AMP: "XPA-A_HI"
- TX-ANT: "XHGA"
- TX-XTRP: "XTRP2"
- TxMode: "TLM"
- generatedAt: "2019-02-21T22:08:31.741Z"
- receivedAt: "2019-02-21T22:27:35.502Z"[/l][/l][/l][/l]
Simulator says touchdown just completed and ascent started....
Telem now shows 800+ meters and climbing.Maybe "1 hour hovering" was actually a "hovering window to look for the marker"; they found it earlier, they landed earlier.
So landing did actually occurred more than half an hour ahead of schedule. ???
Telem now shows 800+ meters and climbing.Maybe "1 hour hovering" was actually a "hovering window to look for the marker"; they found it earlier, they landed earlier.
So landing did actually occurred more than half an hour ahead of schedule. ???
RNG_LIDAR: 1357
generatedAt: "2019-02-21T22:56:31.735Z"
receivedAt: "2019-02-21T23:15:35.404Z"
updatedAt: "2019-02-21T23:20:34.000Z"
[Press Conference] Asteroid explorer "Hayabusa 2" Touchdown Operation (English)
The DCAM3-D CMOS sensor produces 2000 x 2000 pixels 8 bit monochromatic images with a 74 x 74 degrees wide-angle optics.
DCAM3 continues to produce data for a few hours until batteries runs out or the DCAM3 falls and crashes on the asteroid.
The attitude of the unit is stabilized by spin of about 100 deg/sec. It suppress the total attitude instability within 20 deg.https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/2392.pdf
Frame rate 1 frame/sec (maximum)
I'm not able to find much information on DCAM3, does anyone have a good source (beyond what mcgyver posted) describing it? I am really curious about how it gets spun up to 100 rpm and then released.
Mission complete? Ascending?Not ascending; remaining at 7000 m for unknown mission:
press conference about 1st touchdown.Let's see if they explain what they are doing.
press release in english.Picture at page 14 mixes up time and space in horizontal axis.
http://fanfun.jaxa.jp/jaxatv/files/20190305_hayabusa2_en.pdf (http://fanfun.jaxa.jp/jaxatv/files/20190305_hayabusa2_en.pdf)
No comments at all about the "unknown mission after touchdown". Are they talking about it in press conference?Is it not this? (from page 6)
– In the week beginning February 28, BOX-C observations were carried out that included
observations from an altitude of about 5km.
– In the week beginning March 4, we will conduct a survey descent operation to observe
the region around S01.
I completely skipped that page... like previous ones, I thought they was just the usual summary I read a dozen of times. :-)No comments at all about the "unknown mission after touchdown". Are they talking about it in press conference?Is it not this? (from page 6)Quote– In the week beginning February 28, BOX-C observations were carried out that included
observations from an altitude of about 5km.
Another one should be happening now-ishThere was just a little lowering of altitude on March 5th:Quote– In the week beginning March 4, we will conduct a survey descent operation to observe
the region around S01.
Unknown mission now complete, H2 returned back to home position at 20000mOfficial description of the mission:
(https://discourse-data.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/optimized/3X/3/2/327a5165cd95676a8f661fba54b6a9f053147f8b_2_690x343.png)
Target marker tracking video in touchdown operation (TD1-L08E1)Is it windy up there?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPPk8exxV8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPPk8exxV8)
Joking, but I don't understand why such an unstable flight in vacuum.
On such a low gravity body you cannot properly "land", it is more a matter of "docking", and once you match the horizontal shift of the surface, you should (in theory) not need any more adjustments.Joking, but I don't understand why such an unstable flight in vacuum.
Who says it's unstable? It's tracking the target marker and has to keep it within allowable pointing deadband (larger deadbands conserve propellant) while at the same time accounting for asteroid rotation and also, real-world spacecraft rarely have translational controls completely decoupled from rotational controls and any input of one kind is likely to induce movement in the other domain as well.
1) Does Jaxa have previous experience in docking spacecrafts?
On such a low gravity body you cannot properly "land", it is more a matter of "docking", and once you match the horizontal shift of the surface, you should (in theory) not need any more adjustments.
Updated schedule:Did they already perform CRA1 mission? My logger (https://programmi.000webhostapp.com/hayabusa2/simulator/haya2-dates-5000.html)stopped working for several days and I didn't notice it! :-(
March 20 - 22 Descent operation（CRA1）
Week of April 1 Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) operation
Week of April 22 Descent operation（CRA2）
There's a sped-up video of SpaceX's recent Crew Dragon docking to the ISS floating around, it might be instructive to take a look at that and notice... similarities.Interesting video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ITqofUwKc)
There's a sped-up video of SpaceX's recent Crew Dragon docking to the ISS floating around, it might be instructive to take a look at that and notice... similarities.Interesting video... but Crew Dragon movements appears in the order of mm or cm, while H2 wanders around by several dozens of cms (target is just 10 cm wide, H2 is 6m panel-to-panel).
Dragon is co-orbiting with a 'stationary' object (sharing very close to the same orbit, nonrotating relative to that orbit) and has an on-board active tracking system giving relative pose (position and orientation) with backup from off-board tracking of both itself and the ISS.There's a sped-up video of SpaceX's recent Crew Dragon docking to the ISS floating around, it might be instructive to take a look at that and notice... similarities.Interesting video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ITqofUwKc)
Interesting video... but Crew Dragon movements appears in the order of mm or cm, while H2 wanders around by several dozens of cms (target is just 10 cm wide, H2 is 6m panel-to-panel).
next press conference about sci operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gon_6Rn-ucs
2019/03/18 15:00-16:00(JST)
2019/03/18 06:00-07:00(UST)
and next press conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYDheYzPOQ
2019/04/02(Tue) 14:00-15:30(JST)
2019/04/02(Tue) 05:00-06:30(UST)
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1114112619844005889
Correction: Deep Impact came before this.
I think something bad happened to Hayabusa. No news since 4 days, broken telemetries.No, it hasn't. The Japanese account tweeted today:
In the operation of today (April 8 ), we carried out "ONC-W2-round observation". This is the operation that turns around the attitude of the spacecraft in order to shoot Ryugu in the ONC-W2 of the side of the probe. As a result, we were able to capture Ryugu in the expected direction. The spacecraft flies about 100km from Ryugu.
As you perfectly know, there were no updates on official sources (twitter, both japanese and english version, and site) since april 5th. And you also perfectly know that those public telemetries are updated more frequently than those official sources, which sometimes are even one week late w.r.t. the chart.
As I mentioned before (https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45811.msg1871201#msg1871201), you are getting data from system JAXA built for their own purposes, which is not in any way supported as a public API. It's nice that JAXA makes data available, and it's nice that you were able to do something cool with it, but IMO it's pretty irresponsible to suggest a failure based on the lack of updates. Especially without checking official sources.
Spacecraft nominal.
Let's call this the Opportunity lesson. The presence or lack of data, provided in automated mode by the websites of space agencies, should not be used to determine the status of spacecraft.He didn't "determine" anything....
Let's call this the Opportunity lesson. The presence or lack of data, provided in automated mode by the websites of space agencies, should not be used to determine the status of spacecraft.He didn't "determine" anything....
He was looking at a regularly updated feed, saw a prolonged lapse and note absence of other info, so basically said "Uh oh, I think there may be a problem".
Perfectly calibrated in tone, and interesting to note..
Then he got swatted by the morality police, who as usual have nothing better to do...
http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2019/04/20190405a.html
Operational Status of Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2's SCI
April 5, 2019 (JST)
National Research and Development Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The National Research and Development Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has carried out operations to separate the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor) onboard the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 for deployment to the asteroid Ryugu.
The SCI separation has been confirmed using Hayabusa2’s Optical Navigation Camera-Wide (ONC-W1), it is our assessment that separation of the SCI went as planned.
In order to avoid the impact given by the operation of the small carry-on impactor (SCI), Hayabusa2 was moved to the safety zone on the backside of the asteroid before the SCI began to be operated. Hayabusa2 is operating normally.
We will be providing further information once we have confirmed whether the SCI is operating and whether a crater has been created on Ryugu.
An image of separated SCI taken with the Optical Navigation Camera - Wide angle (ONC-W1) on April 5, 2019 at an onboard time of around 10:56 JST
Photographed from approximately 500 meters above Ryugu
Image credit: JAXA, The University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, The University of Aizu, AIST
How can the SCI in this first released image be against a dark background and, in the newly released video above, framed against Ryugu's surface? I can't figure out the geometry...IIRC it was explained (maybe in the post-SCI press conference?) that Ryugu was in the background of the first image, it was just too dark to see. The new video is from the TIR (Thermal Infrared Camera)
"How can the SCI in this first released image be against a dark background and, in the newly released video above, framed against Ryugu's surface? I can't figure out the geometry..."
There were going to be images from a deployed camera as well as the spacecraft itself.
press release in Japanese.
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/kit/hayabusa2/files/20190425/20190425_hayabusa2.pdf
"Yes, but DCAM-3 was deployed several minutes later and in a different direction, so it couldn't have made such an image. Plus the caption says the photo was taken from the main S/C"
OK, answer presumably related to the fields of view of different cameras and exact timing. The Wide Angle view catches it off the limb, and slightly later the other view sees it over the surface. I don't know, I am exploring possible explanations, but it doesn't seem impossible to explain.
press release (Japanese)
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/kit/hayabusa2/files/20190509/20190509_hayabusa2.pdf
Cause of altitude anomaly (and therefore abort)
• The received sensitivity of LIDAR light can be adjusted according to the altitude. In this operation, the received sensitivity was adjusted during an automatic sequence when the spacecraft passed 50m altitude. Due to noise data being mixed in at that time, the LIDAR output returned an unusually high altitude value.
– This is the first time that the received sensitivity change has been performed at low altitude. As the descent accuracy of Hayabusa2 was higher than originally expected, this measure was introduced to prevent the LIDAR from going crazy with a strong reflection, even when the LIDAR light hit the target marker.
– It was difficult to predict in advance how the noise data would affect the signal, as is changes on a case-by-case basis according to the environment of Ryugu and the situation of Hayabusa2.
Future measures
• After this event occurred, we found a adjustment method that could reliably prevent noise mixing. This will be adopted from now on.
Wow they really hit the asteroid pretty hard to send all that debris floating upward.
[...]
press conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Ssb96T3pc
2019/09/24(Tue) 11:00 - 12:00 (JST)
2019/09/24(Tue) 02:00 - 03:00 (UST)
press release(Japanese)
https://fanfun.jaxa.jp/countdown/hayabusa2/press/files/20190924_hayabusa2.pdf
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1177931134459506689
https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1177931134459506689 (https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1177931134459506689)
This was the last post - anyone have any idea what is going on with the mission?
Radio waves from Minerva 2 - does it mean it's functional?I think we should read it as "carrier detected" and interpret it as a "life status signal": "ok, lander did not crash, it's operational".
Reference material for press conferences.
- September 24, 2019:
Material-original (in Japanese) (October 10, uploaded)
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20190924_ver4.pdf
Material-English translation (October 10, uploaded)
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Hayabusa2_Press20190924_ver4_en2.pdf
• Results from the target marker separation operation
• The MINERVA-II2 (Rover2) separation operation
- Material from Tohoku Univ.
(in Japanese) (October 10, uploaded)
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Minerva-II2_PressConf_Sep24_2019_Yoshida_jp.pdf
(English translation） (October 10, uploaded)
http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/enjoy/material/press/Minerva-II2_PressConf_Sep24_2019_Yoshida_en.pdf
The elastic-reaction mechanism using bimetal springs (developed by Yamagata University) will react to the
temperature changes due to the periodic sunlight and shade on Ryugu, then produce some hopping motions of the rover.
However, it is difficult to observe the resulting movement.
Yes, it will keep bouncing on Ryugu for all the eternity (no fuel needed).
Interesting tidbit of information from the last presentation linked above:QuoteThe elastic-reaction mechanism using bimetal springs (developed by Yamagata University) will react to the
temperature changes due to the periodic sunlight and shade on Ryugu, then produce some hopping motions of the rover.
However, it is difficult to observe the resulting movement.
Yes, it will keep bouncing on Ryugu for all the eternity (no fuel needed).
Interesting tidbit of information from the last presentation linked above:QuoteThe elastic-reaction mechanism using bimetal springs (developed by Yamagata University) will react to the
temperature changes due to the periodic sunlight and shade on Ryugu, then produce some hopping motions of the rover.
However, it is difficult to observe the resulting movement.
Does that mean MINERVA-II2 went into an orbit instead of touching down on the surface?
Mission team believes that rover has landed on asteroid, after ~22 hrs around Ryugu. Apparently communication with the rover was established. But since the rover has an issue with data processing system, it can't execute any commands anyway.
Also, Rover 2 has a name now! ULULA, which stands for "University-made Landing Unit for Locomotion on Asteroid". And means "owl" in Latin. This continues the naming trend for MINERVA rovers (previous 2 were calles HIBOU and OWL).
With that, Hayabusa2 mission at Ryugu is finished. Spacecraft will start its year-long journey back home in November or December. Next press-conference will be held on Nov 12 and we should get more info on that then.
https://mainichi.jp/articles/20191112/k00/00m/040/045000cNow it will become useful again the Jaxa simulator (http://haya2now.jp/en.html): the vertical bar at the left of the hayabusa blueprint represents distance from Earth.
At the press conference after the cabinet meeting, Koichi Hanyuda, Minister of Education, Science and Culture, announced that the spacecraft Hayabusa2 will leave the asteroid Ryugu on the 13th and return to Earth.
Were they ever able to confirm that they got a good sample from the grabber? Maybe an estimate of how much mass they picked up?
Today (5/25), Hayabusa2 achieved 2000 days of space flight & passed the mid-point for the return trip! The remaining distance is ~400 million km. Ion engines & flight course are good. Operations continue, hoping that Ryugu’s treasure will arrive at a peaceful Earth --PM Tsuda.
It's only 100 days before we return to Earth!
Hayabusa2 is now 50 million km from Earth and it takes ~5.5 mins (round trip) to communicate with the spacecraft. We will continue to modify the trajectory (TCM) to deliver the capsule safely to Woomera, Australia on December 6!quote]
https://www.jaxa.jp/press/2020/07/20200714-1_j.html
Joint Statement for Cooperation in the Hayabusa2 Sample Return Mission by the Australian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
14 July 2020
The Australian Space Agency (the Agency) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have been in close cooperation on JAXA’s asteroid sample-return mission, ‘Hayabusa2’. The sample capsule is planned to land in Woomera, South Australia and the Agency and JAXA are working towards the planned safe re-entry and recovery of the capsule containing the asteroid samples.
Recently, JAXA indicated that 6 December 2020 (Australia/Japan time) is its planned target date for the capsule re-entry and recovery. [snip]
After this work, some of the retrieved samples may be sent out to international partners for further examination, depending on how much material is available to distribute. That process will likely entail a deal for a swap with NASA’s own asteroid-sample-retrieval mission, called OSIRIS-REx, which is scheduled to return to Earth from the asteroid Bennu in 2023. “Half a percent of [our] sample will be sent to Japan in exchange for Hayabusa2 samples,” says Jason Dworkin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who is project scientist for OSIRIS-REx.
Is the sample return still on track for Dec 6th? That is exciting as that is only 6 weeks away! I saw the Dec 6th date also mentioned here (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/japan-prepares-for-hayabusa2s-daring-return-to-earth/). It would be great to visit the Australian outback again and see it streak through the skies for landing.
Is there an estimation of the mass they retrieved? Is it macroscopic?
Hayabusa2’s haul from Ryugu should be larger—up to a gram of material.Let us know if there are better estimates.
[1 day left until the capsule returns to Earth] Today’s image is “The promised second shooting star”
Artist’s impression of the re-entry capsule turning into a fireball as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. Scheduled for 02:28:27 JST on 6 December, 2020.
The 103cm reflecting telescope at Saji Astro Park in Japan has succeeded in imaging Hayabusa2 and the capsule!
https://www.city.tottori.lg.jp/www/contents/1607165119585/index.html
Kyoto University's Seimei telescope was also able to capture pictures of Hayabusa2 and the separated capsule. We had confirmed the capsule had separated from telemetry and Doppler data, but to see it visually makes it undisputed!
[Capsule Separation Operation] The date has changed to Dec. 6 and operation of the spacecraft continues with shift 2. Currently, about 15 people are in the control room and the operation is proceeding in a quiet atmosphere. The spacecraft will be in shadow from about 01:57 JST.
Is there a GMT timeline somewhere?Galactic Penguin posted one up-thread:
https://twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/1333311648908550144?s=09
Meanwhile actual planned event times of @haya2e_jaxa on December 5 has just been announced too: (UTC)
Capsule separation: 05:30
Atmosphere Entry Interface: 17:28~17:29
Parachute deploy: 17:31~17:33
Landing: 17:47~17:57
[Capsule Separation Operation] The distance between Hayabusa2 and the Earth is displayed at the top of our website. This is the planned value. The value will decrease rapidly after 02:30 JST. Note, the value is the distance from the centre of the Earth. http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/
The relative speed to the Earth will also increase rapidly after 02:30, reaching a maximum of about 11.7 km/s.
At this point (01:05 JST), Hayabusa2 is already closer than the orbit of a geostationary satellite.
The scheduled time for atmospheric entry for the capsule (altitude 120km) is 02:28:27 JST. It's coming soon.
Today (12/6) at 02:29 JST, the direction searcher / information liaison confirmed the light emission (fireball) from the capsule.
Today (12/6) at 02:32 JST, the direction searcher received the beacon radio wave from the capsule.
The estimated landing time for the capsule is between 02:47 ~ 57 JST. Capsule landing is coming soon!
Just spotted #hayabusa2 from #ISS! Unfortunately not bright enough for handheld camera, but enjoyed watching capsule! Thanks Houston & Tsukuba for pointing information!!!
Today (12/6) at 03:07 JST, as a result of the beacon direction search, the capsule landing point has been estimated. Now, we will search by helicopter.
[Capsule Separation Operation] Due close proximity to the Earth, the spacecraft was invisible to ground antenna and communication was interrupted. However, communication with the Goldstone station began again at 03:15 JST. This elicited a big applause in the control room!
Today (12/6) at 04:31 JST, all operations related to the re-entry of the capsule have ended. The operation was perfect. We will now move into science observation operations, and observe the Earth & moon with scientific instruments.
Today (12/6) at 04:47 JST, as a result of the helicopter search, we found a capsule in the planned landing area!
We found the capsule!
Together with the parachute!
Wow!
(Collection Team M)
#Hayabusa2
#はやぶさ２
#AsteroidExplorerHayabusa2
#HAYA2Report
Photographs of the fireball captured on-site. Welcome back.
(Collection Team M)
#Hayabusa2
#はやぶさ２
#AsteroidExplorerHayabusa2
#HAYA2Report
Today (12/6) at 08:03 JST, the helicopter carrying the capsule arrived at local headquarters and the capsule was brought inside the building.
Some kind of cat?
打上げから6年間の宇宙の旅を経た「はやぶさ2」が持ち帰ったカプセルが無事に回収されたことを大変嬉しく思います。成功裡に導いたプロジェクトマネージャの津田教授をはじめ関係者の皆様に敬意を表するとともに、休む間もなく新たな探査に旅立った「はやぶさ2」の更なる活躍を期待します。
#はやぶさ2
I am very pleased that the capsules brought back by Hayabusa2, which has traveled through space for six years since its launch, have been successfully recovered. We would like to pay tribute to Professor Tsuda, the project manager who led to the success, and everyone involved, and look forward to the further success of Hayabusa2, which has set out on a new exploration without a break.
#はやぶさ2
This morning (12/7), the recovery team confirmed that the sample container was properly sealed and completed the gas sampling work. We analyzed the collected gas, but it is still unknown whether the gas originates from the Ryugu sample. Detailed analysis will continue in Japan!
The team should be flying the sample container back to Japan tonight or tomorrow morning so the container can be opened in a near-pure nitrogen environment (very unreactive) in the specially prepared curation chamber
The Hayabusa2 capsule that landed in Woomera, Australia yesterday, will be shipped to Japan by transport aircraft today (12/7) from Woomera Airport at 22:30JST (24:00 local ). Arrival at Haneda Airport is scheduled for 6:45 JST on 12/8. Finally, the capsule will be back in Japan!
Hayabusa-2 is showing a solid signal, now 694.000 km away from Earth and adding 4.3 km/s in distance. Celestial coordinates are RA = 18.25 h, Dec = 3.48°. DSNnow is showing valid pointing data again, while Haya2NOW is still showing random data for their antenna pointing.
A small capsule containing asteroid soil samples that was dropped from space by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft and landed in the Australian outback has arrived in Tokyo for research into the origin of the solar system and life on earth.https://www.riverineherald.com.au/world/2020/12/08/2361475/asteroid-soil-samples-arrive-in-japan
The extremely high-precision work at the end of Hayabusa2's six-year mission thrilled many Japanese.
The box with the capsule inside was transported to JAXA's research facility in Sagamihara, near Tokyo, for analysis.
A large number of particles are confirmed to be in “sample chamber A” inside the collected capsule (~11:10 JST on 12/15). This is thought to be the sample from the first touchdown on Ryugu. The photo looks brown, but our team says “black”! The sample return is a great success!
This video is an extract from yesterday’s press conference, with Hayabusa2 Project Manager Yuichi Tsuda confirming samples from Ryugu in the capsule!
The curation work for the Ryugu sample is steadily progressing. On December 21, sample catcher chambers B & C were opened and then the contents of chambers A & C were moved to the collection containers in the photo. The largest particles in chamber C are about 1 cm!
We have gathered together images taken during the opening of the sample container and catcher on the project website! Please take a look at the samples brought home from asteroid Ryugu here:
Material from the press conference on February 4 is now online! Topics include the current status of the spacecraft and curation work, results from the LIDAR optical link experiment and summaries of recent journal papers.
Material here:
You can currently see grains from asteroid Ryugu that were brought back by Hayabusa2 at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation @miraikan and the Sagamihara City Museum @scm_sagapon . These are photographs from today’s press briefing, but do visit the real thing!"
This tweet refers to "today's press briefing" (Dec 6th). Has anyone found this online? Even in Japanese, with auto-captioning, it would be nice to watch.
The top of the Hayabusa2 website has changed to show the image for the Extended Mission! The background picture shows an imaginary view during the fly-by exploration of asteroid 2001 CC21 in 2026. Hayabusa2 must still orbit around the Sun many times, but we're on our way!
The pristine sample from the near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu collected by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft enabled us to analyze the pristine extraterrestrial material without uncontrolled exposure to the Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere. The initial analysis team for the soluble organic matter reported the detection of wide variety of organic molecules including racemic amino acids in the Ryugu samples. Here we report the detection of uracil, one of the four nucleobases in ribonucleic acid, in aqueous extracts from Ryugu samples. In addition, nicotinic acid (niacin, a B3 vitamer), its derivatives, and imidazoles were detected in search for nitrogen heterocyclic molecules. The observed difference in the concentration of uracil between A0106 and C0107 may be related to the possible differences in the degree of alteration induced by energetic particles such as ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays. The present study strongly suggests that such molecules of prebiotic interest commonly formed in carbonaceous asteroids including Ryugu and were delivered to the early Earth.