Tiny German Spacecraft Poised for Hopping Landing on Asteroid Ryugu

Tiny German Spacecraft Poised for Hopping Landing on Asteroid Ryugu

Tiny German Spacecraft Poised for Hopping Landing on Asteroid Ryugu







A tiny German asteroid landing is expected to touch its target on Tuesday, October 2 (EDT). The ship is on a quest to send data on the surface of the mysterious Ryugu, whose precise composition continues to elude researchers More than three months after the Japanese Hayabusa2, which will deliver MASCOT to the surface, it will reach the space rock.



	

	The landing module, called MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout), is expected to separate from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft at 9:58 p.m. EDT (0158 GMT) on Tuesday, officials of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) he said in a statement. It will be the third landing launched to the asteroid Ryugu by Hayabusa2, which landed successfully two small landing modules MINERVA-II1  last month. MASCOT is a project of DLR and the French space agency CNES. 

		The exact landing site of MASCOT can not be predicted, as the spacecraft will bounce up to 200 meters (660 feet) from its initial landing location in the southern hemisphere of the asteroid, officials said.

He[[Woohoo! The Rubbly Surface Pops of the asteroid Ryugu in the best photo in history]

		DLR called the next MASCOT trip a "descent into the unknown". That description echoed some of the feelings that the European Space Agency and the DLR controllers surely felt in 2014, after releasing the Philae lander from the Rosetta spacecraft, in orbit of the comet, near Comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko .





						


The MASCOT lander of the German Aerospace Center, seen here in an illustration of an artist, will land on the asteroid Ryugu after being deployed from the Japanese ship Hayabusa2. MASCOT will move by Ryugu jumping.

            						    Credit: German Aerospace Center (DLR) 


		Landing of philae it was not exactly the plan. The boat's safety harpoons never fired, and the lander bounced twice, flying for 2 hours before resting in a shady spot. Away from the sun, the solar lander died in a few days. Rosetta took two years in track exactly where Philae fell. Incredibly, however, Philae did send scientific data during its limited time on the surface with battery power.

		Japan is also trying to have better luck after its predecessor asteroid mission, Hayabusa. That mission was supposed to deploy a landing vehicle called MINERVA (Robot Micro / Nano Experimental Vehicle for Asteroids) almost 14 years ago, in November 2004. However, the small landing vehicle was diverted into space and never touched its target , the asteroid Itokawa. . The recent landings of Hayabusa2 in MINERVA-II1 were a kind of claim for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. 



		Free fall, free.





						


This image of the southern hemisphere of the Ryugu asteroid, taken by the Japanese ship Hayabusa2, shows the target landing site from the MASCOT lander of the German Aerospace Center.

            						    Credit: German Aerospace Center (DLR) 


		MASCOT will have a short mission, but this is in accordance with the plan. It is designed to last about 16 hours on the surface. But that is assuming that the lander does it safely and is able to send data to Earth.

		The target area of ​​MASCOT is located in the southern hemisphere of Ryugu, in a smooth area with a smooth day and night cycle that should not damage the landing vehicle. Temperatures there will range between 116 and minus 89 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees and minus 67 degrees Celsius).

		To get there, Hayabusa2 will first dive. The spacecraft has orbited Ryugu. from as high as about 12 miles (20 kilometers) But to release MASCOT, Hayabusa will reduce to 60 feet (60 meters).

		Then, MASCOT will fall only towards Ryugu, without control and without power. But this is not a suicidal plunge; Due to the low gravity of the asteroid, the decrease of MASCOT will only reach 8 inches (20 centimeters) per second. A typical adult human walks seven times faster than that, said DLR officials.

		No more than 10 minutes after leaving Hayabusa2, MASCOT will make its first landing on the surface of Ryugu. The lander will bounce several more times before stopping. They will be dangerous moments; The MASCOT could get trapped in a crack. Or, if it bounces too high, the lander could be lost forever, warned the project manager, Tra-Mi Ho.

		"A smooth descent is crucial, otherwise, MASCOT will recover from the asteroid like a rubber ball due to low gravitational force and will be lost in space," Ho said in the same statement.





						


The MASCOT lander, aboard the Japanese probe Hayabusa2, is about to land on the asteroid Ryugu.

            						    Credit: DLR 




		Working on your own

		At the beginning, MASCOT will operate on its own, executing prepared scripts. The plan is for the spacecraft to automatically stand upright and take measurements on its own for a few hours.

		If all goes well, scientists at the MASCOT control center in Cologne, Germany, can ask the lander to make one more leap on the surface to get a different point of view, officials said. If that happens, MASCOT will sail only 33 feet (10 m) away. It is being done to preserve the useful life of the battery to collect scientific data.

		The small one, of 22 pounds. (10 kilograms) MASCOT will collect data using four instruments and send your scientific data and images to your home a few days after landing. These data will include measurements of the mineralogy of the asteroid, the temperature of the surface and the magnetic field.

		The spacecraft will send only a few updates to Earth, because the communication windows are limited and Hayabusa2 will send "huge amounts of data" around the landing and operations of MASCOT, DLR officials added.

		While the MASCOT mission has a limited time, Hayabusa2 Spend the next months deploying more landing modules.. He will even make some own annotations in Ryugu. Hayabusa2 will leave the asteroid in 2019, samples in hand, for a planned return to Earth in December 2020.



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