JAXA has announced that the asteroid exploring spacecraft Hayabusa2 is officially done with its mission on the asteroid Ryugu. With the sample gathering complete, the spacecraft departed the asteroid on November 13, 2019, at 10:05 am JST. JAXA has confirmed that the departure from the asteroid was made.
Japan has announced plans to help NASA in its effort to return humans to the Moon in 2024. The work will take place under NASA's Artemis program, one of multiple efforts that will pave the way for an eventual human trip to Mars. Under its participation, Japan's Cabinet Office revealed that it will help build the orbital outpost intended to serve as a base for astronauts.
As if landing on large planets weren't difficult enough, the space scientists and engineers in at JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) wanted to land a spacecraft on an asteroid. In fact, it wanted to do it twice, on the same moving asteroid. Mind-boggling but definitely epic and, fortunately for JAXA and its probe, that is exactly what happened. The very proud space agency just announced that its Hayabusa2 successfully hopped on the asteroid Ryugu for the second time and it sent home pictures to prove its short adventure.
Earlier this month we talked about the JAXA Hayabusa2 spacecraft and that it had hurled its Small Carry-on Impactor at the asteroid and that the impact had created the desired crater. JAXA has tweeted an image of the surface of Ryugu before and after the impactor smashed into its surface. With the successful creation of the crater and resulting loose debris now lying about, Hayabusa2 will now collect some of those samples.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, has announced that the Hayabusa2 spacecraft will soon pull off another critical mission. The new mission will see the spacecraft drop an explosive on Ryugu in an attempt to make its own crater and extract underground samples from the asteroid.