Hayabusa 2 - Japan's sample return probe to asteroid 1999 JU3

[selvaarchi]

Learn how to pronounce Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and Ryugu. The audio in Emily Lakdawalla's post is 48 seconds.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...nce-ryugu.html

I realized that I need to know how to pronounce Ryugu too, and I also realized that I wasn't sure how Japanese speakers pronounce the name of its spacecraft, Hayabusa2. Fortunately, Tasker had access to a roomful of astronomy graduate students at Hokkaido University, several of whom carefully spoke the words for her and me: Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and Ryugu. I thank them very much for helping me out!

[Jens]

Learn how to pronounce Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and Ryugu. The audio in Emily Lakdawalla's post is 48 seconds.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...nce-ryugu.html

I would guess it's pretty close to how you would pronounce it in Malaysian, so it's probably easy for you. Though maybe in Malaysian you put stress on syllables? In Japanese there isn't stress.

So actually, you would do pretty well by just saying hah-yah-boo-sah and ryiew (as in view)-goo. The "u" sound is actually a little different from "oo" in English, somewhere between "boo" and "book."

[selvaarchi]

I wish her better luck than her older sister. The best that can be said is she made it back home, poor Hayabusa-tan.

Imagination Technologies has a different view to you on that. In their recent interview with Associate Professor Yuichi Tsuda, Ph.D., the project manager for Hayabusa-2, they said "The first Hayabusa mission was an amazing success"

Read the whole interview on Hayabusa-2 below.

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/mi...id-rendezvous/

Over three weeks ago, Imagination Technologies had an exclusive interview with the New Horizons engineering team. The high-profile story presented the hardware and software systems that took the probe to Pluto and beyond.

A week later, Imagination Technologies revisited another important space mission called Hayabusa-2. Back in July, Imagination Technologies wrote about the 64-bit MIPS CPU aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft headed for the newly-named 162173 Ryugu asteroid. After a brief exchange about the chip and how it had been designed, Imagination Technologies decided to organize a full interview with the engineering team working on Hayabusa-2 to find out more about the probe and its mission.

Rather than retell their story, Spaceflight Insider has opted to have Alexandru Voica of Imagination Technologies print this interview in its entirety. His contact at JAXA and the person replying to the questions below is Associate Professor Yuichi Tsuda, Ph.D., the project manager for Hayabusa-2. Dr. Tsuda works for the Department of Space Flight Systems at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and at JAXA.

[selvaarchi]

Hayabusa2 recently took a picture of earth and its moon. Emily Lakdawalla's has an article describing it.

Do not forget tomorrow Hayabusa2 does a flyby of earth.

[selvaarchi]

Hayabusa2 has performed an Earth swing-by operation but it will take a week to confirm if the explorer entered the target orbit.

[selvaarchi]

It will be ESA's deep-space ground station in Argentina that will be helping keep track of Hayabusa2.

[selvaarchi]

Congratulations JAXA, for doing a perfect sling shot using earth's gravity.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/12/1...r-earth-flyby/

The results of the flyby showed Hayabusa 2 is on the correct path after the Dec. 3 encounter, which turned the probe’s orbit by about 80 degrees and increased its speed 1.6 kilometers per second (3,579 mph) relative to the sun’s position, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

The extra speed will propel Hayabusa 2 outward from Earth’s orbit toward Ryugu, a near-Earth asteroid that spends most of its time farther from the sun than Earth.

Hayabusa 2 is in good health after the Earth flyby, JAXA said in a press release Monday.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[selvaarchi]

Hayabusa2 sees its target.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...ted-ryugu.html

JAXA has released its first photo of its eventual destination, asteroid Ryugu, taken on February 26. According to an announcement on the mission website, there were 300 images taken in total, of which nine were transmitted to Earth the next day.

[selvaarchi]

What kind of asteroid is Ryugu?

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest...-is-ryugu.html

We are now only a short distance from asteroid Ryugu! On February 26, 2018, an image of Ryugu was successfully captured using the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) onboard Hayabusa2 (story and images here). Although the asteroid can currently only be seen as a bright point, it is very encouraging for the Hayabusa2 Project Members to spot the destination!

Nobody yet knows what Ryugu will look like. Even the Hayabusa2 Project Members and experts from all around the world do not know! This is why we are hosting a contest to ask you all to imagine what Ryugu will be like before Hayabusa2 arrives at the asteroid. But what do we already know about Ryugu, and why is it so hard to know what it looks like? Here I will summarise what you might find helpful when picturing Ryugu.

Note: This explanation is quite long and sometimes a bit technical. For imagining what Ryugu will look like, it may be better not to have your ideas tangled up in all this information! So if you find this a tricky read, feel free to just skip to the last summary.

[selvaarchi]

Now Emily Lakdawalla reminds us to brush up our knowledge on Hayabusa2 as we are almost at asteroid Ryugu.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...hayabusa2.html

Hayabusa2 is approaching Ryugu! Here's how to stay on top of the mission.

As I write this, fewer than 21,000 kilometers separate the Hayabusa2 spacecraft from its asteroid target, Ryugu, and it's approaching the asteroid at a speed of 40 meters per second -- only about 150 kilometers per hour. I have always paired Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx in my mind, because they are both sample-return missions approaching their target asteroids in summer 2018. But Hayabusa2 will already have touched down on its asteroid by the end of 2018, while OSIRIS-REx will still be surveying Bennu from a distance at the end of the year. It's time for those of us who've been sleeping on Hayabusa2 to wake up and pay attention!

[selvaarchi]

Emily Lakdawalla on Hayabusa2's latest status.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...ach-phase.html

Hayabusa2 has officially transitioned from cruise to Ryugu approach mission phases. On June 3, the spacecraft ended use of its ion engines, for now, and is now coasting the remaining distance toward the asteroid. It's using an optical navigation camera to image the asteroid's position against a field of background stars to help it navigate. Most of those images over-expose the asteroid to make background stars visible, but since Hayabusa2 is now close enough to resolve the asteroid as more than one pixel, they took a shot at a much shorter exposure to reveal Ryugu. Are you ready? (Drum roll) here it is...

[selvaarchi]

Latest picture taken by Hayabusa 2 of Ryugu asteroid. Still to far for any details.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0fp/092000c

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed the latest image of asteroid Ryugu captured by its explorer Hayabusa 2 on June 14. The Hayabusa 2 is scheduled to come within roughly 20 kilometers from the asteroid around June 27.

The image was taken on June 13 from approximately 920 kilometers from Ryugu. The asteroid appears to be roundish with some rugged features. It is estimated to be about 1 kilometer in diameter.

And comments from Emily Lakdawalla on the latest photo.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...kes-shape.html

Hayabusa2 is now less than 1000 kilometers away from Ryugu, and the tiny asteroid is beginning to betray its shape. There are enough pixels across it now in Hayabusa2's telescopic optical navigation camera to see that it's definitely not perfectly round. It seems more faceted, with an equatorial bulge, which is a commonly predicted shape for rubble-pile asteroids. There are even hints of surface features, in that the variation in pixel value across the disk doesn't appear perfectly uniform. It's getting exciting! We're about to turn another world from a point of light into a WORLD!

[ravens_cry]

We're about to turn another world from a point of light into a WORLD!

This is what I love about our asteroid and cometary missions. Most of the planets we had some idea of what they looked like in general terms before we sent our robotic emissaries to investigate, but, comets and asteroids, we knew so very little, and now, yes, this one is about to become a world.

[selvaarchi]

For those who want more details of the Hayabusa2 mission, nasaspaceflight has a very readable article on it.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018...sample-return/

The Japanese asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2, launched on December 3, 2014 aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan, has nearly completed its long flight to asteroid Ryugu (formerly 1999 JU3) after a five year mission and an Earth flyby.

The mission was approved as a follow-on to the Hayabusa mission which became the first probe to sample an asteroid when it landed on the young “rubble pile” asteroid Itokawa, though the mission had its share of problems.

[selvaarchi]

Now it is taking shape and looking like a spinning top.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/002000c

"The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released yet another set of photographs of asteroid Ryugu taken by its Hayabusa 2 explorer from about 240 to 330 kilometers away from the object.

The images, taken from June 17 through June 18, show the asteroid in more detail than the ones taken about four to five days ago. It appears like a "spinning top," JAXA said, with crater-like dimples on the surface."

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[Swift]

Now it is taking shape and looking like a spinning top.

Or maybe a d8.

[Squink]

D8 with crater at one apex: http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/...e/index_e.html

[selvaarchi]

Latest pictures.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/06/2...se-spacecraft/

In the final days of a three-and-a-half year pursuit, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 sample return spacecraft is beaming back clearer images of asteroid Ryugu, an unexplored object that scientists say resembles a spinning top or dumpling nearly 180 million miles from Earth.

The approaching Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is revealing Ryugu for the first time, sharpening views of an asteroid scientists hope to sample later this year. The nearly 3,000-foot (900-meter) wide asteroid has never been visited by a space mission before now.

[Squink]

The nearly 3,000-foot (900-meter) wide asteroid has never been visited by a space mission before now.

Yes, it's nice to see something that looks different. The two potatoes joined at an angle for small bodies was getting a bit too common.
There must be other shapes out there.
Might be a lot of dust between those vertices though. I hope they sample carefully.

[selvaarchi]

It is now on its final approach.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180621_31/

Japan's national space agency says its probe, "Hayabusa2", has less than a week to go before reaching the orbit of the asteroid Ryugu.

Mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said on Thursday that course control has been done as planned, and all has gone well. He added that his team is ready to carefully carry out its remaining work.

[bknight]

It is now on its final approach.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180621_31/

Ah man

JAXA also released images taken by the probe on Wednesday. They show that the 900-meter-diameter asteroid is pointed at its poles and has what looks like a mountain range near its equator. Yoshikawa compared Ryugu's shape to a spinning top or an abacus bead.

They didn't release the image in the announcement.

[selvaarchi]

They didn't release the image in the announcement.

Squink posted it in post #49

[bknight]

Squink posted it in post #49

Actually you posted it in post #48, but thanks.

[publiusr]

It's the Borg Queen's ride, after icing up
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/B...een%27s_vessel

[selvaarchi]

Emily Lakdawalla on the photos we have received and future plans.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...new-views.html

As we approached Ryugu and were able to distinguish individual features in the asteroid's topology, it became clear that Ryugu has a land of rich terrain. Numerous clusters of rock roll on the surface. Among these, a large rocky mass (about 150m across) stands out on the upper part of Ryugu due to its brighter color (higher reflectivity). The belt-shaped ring of peaks that surround the equator are also slightly brighter than their surroundings. This color difference may reflect a difference in material composition and the size of the particles that form the rock. We can also see many sunken regions that look like craters. These depressions may have been made in collisions with other celestial bodies. A structure that looks like a grove is also visible.

The existence of such varied topographies is an indication that Ryugu has undergone a complex evolutionary history. It is generally believed that small asteroids that are less than 1km, such as Ryugu, were created fairly recently in the Solar System's history (within several hundred million years) during the fragmentation of a larger parent body. Ryugu's terrain will tell us about the division from the parent body and the asteroid's subsequent evolution.

[selvaarchi]

Emily Lakdawalla compares Ryugu tp other known asteroids.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...-at-ryugu.html

Super congratulations to Japan and the Hayabusa2 team for their successful arrival at asteroid Ryugu today! It's too late, California time, for me to write much, but I could not resist taking the latest and greatest image released by the team and using it to create a couple of my patented scale comparisons.

First of all, I was immediately struck by how similar the surface texture of Ryugu appears to Hayabusa's target Itokawa. The shapes of the two asteroids are obviously very different, but where Itokawa is rubbly, Ryugu's surface looks the same -- even the boulders max out at roughly the same size. Itokawa has weird smooth "seas" that Ryugu appears not to have, but Itokawa's otter-like shape creates bizarre gravity lows that won't exist on much more spherical Ryugu. I'm calling this to scale (ish) because my knowledge of the scale of the two images isn't as precise as I'd like it to be. If I track down better scale information, I'll replace this with a modified version.

[selvaarchi]

Another picture of Ryugu taken on the 24th.

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/mi...steroid-ryugu/

Asteroid Ryugu (originally named 1999 JU3) is a C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid and is expected to be rich in organic compounds. While originally thought to be spherical, recent imagery has shown it to be roughly diamond-shaped.

“The shape of Ryugu is now revealed. From a distance, Ryugu initially appeared round, then gradually turned into a square before becoming a beautiful shape similar to fluorite (known as the ‘firefly stone’ in Japanese),” said project manager Yuichi Tsuda. “Now, craters are visible, rocks are visible and the geographical features are seen to vary from place to place. This form of Ryugu is scientifically surprising and also poses a few engineering challenges.”

The mission team is planning to conduct exploratory activities near the asteroid, including scientific observations of Ryugu and surveying the asteroid for potential sample collection sites.

“The Project Team is fascinated by the appearance of Ryugu and morale is rising at the prospect of this challenge. Together with all of you, we have become the first eyewitnesses to see asteroid Ryugu. I feel this amazing honor as we proceed with the mission operations,” Tsuda said.

[selvaarchi]

Scientific American on Hayabusa2 preparing for exploration.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...r-exploration/

Hayabusa2 is an asteroid sample-return mission led by JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS). The mission’s goal is to rendezvous with Ryugu, analyze its properties and perform a set of surface operations. Action on the surface involves deploying three small rovers and the European-designed lander known as MASCOT, as well as gathering three different samples of material to return to Earth. Prior to collecting the third sample, Hayabusa2 will release a two-kilogram copper projectile dubbed the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor) to create an artificial crater on Ryugu’s surface so that subsurface material can be gathered. As of this writing, the probe has just arrived at Ryugu, where it will stay until the end of 2019, before dispatching its sample-filled capsule back to Earth at the end of 2020.

[ravens_cry]

Another picture of Ryugu taken on the 24th.

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/mi...steroid-ryugu/

Whoever wrote the caption for the photo flubbed some, since it was taken at forty kilometres, not forty metres.

[Superluminal]

Whoever wrote the caption for the photo flubbed some, since it was taken at forty kilometres, not forty metres.

Maybe they don't know metrics?