TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2019) Japanese asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 has successfully performed its second landing on the surface of asteroid Ryugu, Japanese space agency JAXA said on Thursday.

"July 11 at 10:51 JST [01:51 GMT]: Gate 5 check. The state of the spacecraft is normal and the touchdown sequence was performed as scheduled. Project Manager Tsuda has declared that the 2nd touchdown was a success!" JAXA wrote on the probe's Twitter.

A webcast on the JAXA website showed that the probe began descending from an altitude of 20 kilometers (13 miles) on Wednesday, aiming to land near a crater that it created in April by firing a bullet into the asteroid's soil.

During the touchdown, the probe will collect the samples of material released from firing the projectile into the surface for bringing them to Earth.

Scientists believe that the samples, which the Japanese probe will try to collect, may shed light on how the Solar System was created and how life appeared on Earth.

Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014 and is expected to return to Earth in 2020.

Ryugu is currently over 300 million kilometers away from Earth. </s> Today is a big day for humanity. We have bombed an asteroid, finally exacting revenge for what the asteroids did to the dinosaurs. There’s a valid scientific reason, too. The Japanese Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is collecting material from the asteroid Ryugu, and blasting it with a massive kinetic projectile is a good way to expose material from deep below the surface.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the spacecraft in 2014, and it took more than two years for it to reach Ryugu more than 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) from Earth. After meeting up in deep space, Hayabusa 2 began mapping the surface of Ryugu to develop a plan of attack.

Hayabusa 2 has a sampling arm designed to gently touch the surface of Ryugu. To get material into the sampling arm, the probe carries a few 5-gram tantalum slugs it can fire at high speed. Earlier this year, Hayabusa 2 successfully fired off one of its two bullets to help it scoop up a few fragments of the asteroid.

JAXA confirms Hayabusa 2 has now dropped the bomb on Ryugu — the bomb, in this case, is the 5.5-pound (2.5kilogramsm) Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI). The SCI is actually a self-contained launching platform with a shaped HMX explosive charge that propels the impactor at 2 kilometers per second. Hayabusa 2 deployed the SCI and then moved to a safe location on the other side of the asteroid before JAXA launched the SCI at the surface. Images from the probe confirm the SCI hit Ryugu, blasting material into space.

Hayabusa 2 will wait a bit before it heads back to the impact site, but JAXA hopes it will find a crater several meters across. The floor of the crater should have pristine asteroid regolith that hasn’t been bombarded by radiation for uncountable eons. It’s as close as we can come to getting a sample of the early solar system. Hayabusa 2 will eventually descend to the surface in order to collect a sample from the crater. It also carries another small tantalum bullet to excavate another surface sample.

Hayabusa 2 isn’t collecting pieces of Ryugu to keep them in deep space. The probe has a sample-return container, which JAXA plans to launch back to Earth in the coming months. It might contain as much as 100 milligrams of asteroid material when it gets here in late 2020. </s> The Hayabusa 2 probe had an eventful evening yesterday, some 186 million miles (300 million kilometers) from Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent a long-awaited command, and the probe landed on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu, shot it with a bullet, and floated back upward. The goal was to collect material from the asteroid, but we don’t know how much asteroid regolith Hayabusa 2 scooped up.

JAXA had to plan the landing very carefully — Hayabusa 2 was too far away to control in real-time, so the probe had to run on autopilot. Surface analysis carried out with the MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B landers showed the surface of Ryugu to be much more uneven than the team had expected. Hayabusa 2 needed enough open space to extend its sampling horn to make contact with the surface.

According to JAXA, Hayabusa 2 made it to the surface as intended. As soon as it made contact, the probe fired off a 5-gram “bullet” composed of the high-density metal tantalum at more than 300 meters per second. The impact created a cloud of dust and rock fragments, some of which fell into the collection tube. JAXA confirms that Hayabusa 2 has retreated to a safe distance following the sample collection.

Hayabusa 2 still has another tantalum bullet in the chamber with Ryugu’s name on it. JAXA hasn’t offered specifics on when it will use that one, but a subsurface sampling is currently scheduled for April of this year. The surface of Ryugu has been exposed to solar radiation for billions of years, so material inside the asteroid may have a different composition. To get at it, Hayabusa 2 is going to have to blast a crater.

To do that, the probe will use the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI). Hayabusa 2 will deploy this device and then retreat to a safe distance on the other side of the asteroid. The SCI carries an HMX shaped explosive charge that will accelerate a 5.5 pound (2.5 kilograms) copper impactor into the surface. Hayabusa 2 will wait about two weeks for the particulates to settle before descending into the newly formed crater to grab a sample.

JAXA hopes to get as much as 100 milligrams of material from Ryugu over the course of the mission. We won’t know for certain how much of Ryugu Hayabusa 2 collected until the sample return container gets back to Earth in late 2020. </s> Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has completed yet another intense mission: It used an explosive to blast a crater in the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. This success comes after the probe briefly touched down on the asteroid in February, firing a tantalum bullet into the surface in hopes of kicking up debris.

On Thursday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 deployed its Small Carry-On Impactor Operation (SCI) to create an artificial crater that the probe will then be able to study. The JAXA team hopes this will allow them to observe how craters form in general on the asteroid. This was a complex, multi-part experiment, and a process that in total boiled down to a critical window of about 40 minutes.

After deploying SCI and before detonation, Hayabusa2 had to reposition itself at a safe distance, out of the path of potential debris. According to the Planetary Society, this essentially involved scooting sideways before dipping downward so that it was situated somewhat behind Ryugu.

During the evacuation process, the spacecraft released its Deployable Camera 3 (DCAM3), which captured the action from about a kilometer away. As you can see in the tweeted image above, the SCI indeed kicked up debris after colliding with Ryugu. The DCAM3 is equipped with two cameras, one high-resolution digital camera and one low-resolution analog camera that should beam back images in real time.

Along with studying the aftermath of the artificial crater created by the impactor, Hayabusa2 might also be able to collect a sub-surface sample.

Ahead of Thursday’s blast attempt, scientists had a fairly rough estimate of how big a crater the explosive could produce. While some models put the width of the crater at around 10 meters, the target location for the impact had a 200-meter margin of error that accounted for different surface types, according to Planetary Society. We’re still waiting on updates from JAXA to learn more about the nature of the newly created crater.

Hayabusa2 rendezvoused with Ryugu in June 2018 following a four-year journey, and it has spent the last year carrying out all sorts of experiments. In addition to deploying MINERVA-II rovers and the MASCOT lander, the spacecraft in February completed one of its biggest mission goals: touching down on and firing a bullet into the asteroid’s surface, in hopes of kicking up debris that could be collected as samples and brought back to Earth.

We won’t know for sure whether the probe managed to snatch up samples until it returns to Earth in late 2020.

Hayabusa2 isn’t the only spacecraft currently studying a near-Earth asteroid. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is currently visiting the asteroid Bennu. If all goes according to plan, the NASA spacecraft will collect its own samples and bring them back to Earth in 2023. </s> The probe was due to fire a pellet into the surface of the asteroid to try to capture dust

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

A Japanese spacecraft has successfully touched down on a speeding asteroid 300 million kilometres from the Earth as it attempts an audacious manoeuvre to collect samples and bring them back for scientists to study.

The Hayabusa 2 probe touched down on the asteroid Ryugu at around 11:30pm GMT on Thursday. Data from the probe showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had reached the asteroid’s surface, according to officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

A live webcast of the control room showed dozens of JAXA staff members nervously monitoring data ahead of the touchdown before exploding into applause after receiving a signal from Hayabusa2 that it had landed.

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe to fire pellet at asteroid to obtain samples Read more

“We made a successful touchdown, including firing a bullet” into the Ryugu asteroid, Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa 2 project manager, told reporters.

“We made the ideal touchdown in the best conditions,” he said.

JAXA spokeswoman Chisato Ikuta said the control centre had “received data that shows that the probe is working normally and is healthy.”

Scientists are continuing to gather and analyse data from the probe, she said.

The probe was due to fire a bullet at the Ryugu asteroid, to stir up surface matter, which it will then collect for analysis back on Earth. The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born.

The complicated procedure took less time than expected and appeared to go without a hitch, said Hayabusa 2 mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa.

“I’m really relieved now. It felt very long until the moment the touchdown happened,” he said.

He said the firing of the bullet - the first of three planned in this mission - “will lead to a leap, or new discoveries, in planetary science.”

The spacecraft is seeking to gather 10g of the dislodged debris with an instrument named the Sampler Horn that hangs from its underbelly.

Whatever material is collected by the spacecraft will be stored onboard until Hayabusa 2 reaches its landing site in Woomera, South Australia, in 2020 after a journey of more than three billion miles.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency published live updates of the landing on Thursday night, and spirits were high.

In footage broadcast from the control room, presenters repeatedly described the smiles on the faces of team members. When Doppler data came through showing “behaviour as expected” after the spacecraft landed, the official Twitter account for the mission reported “cheers went up with a clap!”

But there was no rest for the team, with the Hayabusa 2 account tweeting: “A group photograph was taken in the control room. Now everyone is back to work again.”

Hayabusa 2 caught up with Ryugu in June last year after a three-and-a-half-year journey to intercept it. Mission controllers at the Japanese space agency had planned to touch down in October, but delayed the attempt after cameras revealed the surface to be far rockier than expected.

The asteroid belongs to a family of space rocks that are the most primitive building blocks of the solar system. “This is the material that didn’t get swept up into planets, it got left behind,” said John Bridges, a professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester. “The reason we want to study it is that this is what material was like at year zero.”

Similar material falls to Earth as meteorites, but it is battered and burned as it tears through the atmosphere and quickly becomes contaminated when it thumps into the ground. The asteroid material from Hayabusa 2 will show scientists what meteorite material is like before it plunges to Earth. </s> A Japanese probe began descending towards an asteroid on Thursday on a mission to blast a crater into its surface and collect material that could shed light on the solar system's evolution.

The mission will be the latest in a series of explorations carried out by the Japanese space agency's Hayabusa2 probe and could reveal more about the origin of life on Earth.

But the task scheduled for Friday will be the riskiest yet of Hayabusa2's investigations, and involves the release of a device filled with explosives.

The so-called "small carry-on impactor", a cone-shaped device capped with a copper bottom, will emerge from Hayabusa2 on Friday, after the probe has arrived just 500 metres above the asteroid Ryugu.

The probe will then depart the area, and the impactor is programmed to explode 40 minutes later, propelling the copper bottom towards Ryugu, where it should gouge a crater into the surface of the asteroid that sits 300 million kilometres from Earth.

Hayabusa2 will move away from the area to avoid being damaged by debris from the explosion or the collision with Ryugu.

As it does so it will release a camera slightly above the site of the detonation that should be able to capture images of the event.

The camera should be able to transmit those images, but it is unclear when the first confirmation of the mission's success will come.

It will take two weeks for the probe itself to return to its "home position" near Ryugu after the detonation and impact.

"We are thrilled to see what will happen when the impactor collides with the asteroid," Takashi Kubota, engineering researcher at the Japanese space agency (JAXA), told reporters earlier this week.

The crater could be as large as 10 metres in diameter if the surface is sandy, but a smaller three metres across if it is rocky, according to JAXA scientists.

NASA's Deep Impact project succeeded in creating an artificial crater on a comet in 2005, but only for observation purposes.

The aim of the crater on Ryugu is to throw up "fresh" material from under the asteroid's surface that could shed light on the early days of the solar system.

In February, Hayabusa2 touched down briefly on Ryugu and fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.

The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born.

The Hayabusa2 mission, with a price tag of around 30 billion yen ($270 million), was launched in December 2014 and is scheduled to return to Earth with its samples in 2020.

Photos of Ryugu — which means "Dragon Palace" in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale — show the asteroid has a rough surface full of boulders.

Hayabusa2 observes the surface of the asteroid with its camera and sensing equipment but has also dispatched two tiny MINERVA-II rover robots as well as the French-German robot MASCOT to help surface observation.

At about the size of a large fridge, Hayabusa2 is equipped with solar panels and is the successor to JAXA's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa — Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned with dust samples from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

Tech2 is now on WhatsApp. For all the buzz on the latest tech and science, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Tech2.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button. </s> A Japanese spacecraft has landed on a distant asteroid and collected underground samples that scientists hope will provide clues to the origin of the solar system billions of years ago.

Japan's space agency said on Thursday that the Hayabusa2 spacecraft landed inside a crater it had created on the Ryugu asteroid months earlier and collected samples that scientists believe contain valuable data unaffected by space radiation and other environmental factors.

Hayabusa2 is the first spacecraft to successfully collect underground samples from an asteroid. A similar mission is planned by NASA on another asteroid, Bennu.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said the data shows Hayabusa2 touched down and rose safely after collecting the samples.

The news was greeted with cheering and applause in the JAXA mission control room, with officials grinning and shaking hands.

JAXA officials said earlier that the probe appeared to have landed successfully, but confirmation came only after Hayabusa2 lifted back up from the asteroid and resumed communications with the control room.

Research director Takashi Kubta told reporters that the touchdown operation was "more than perfect", adding that project manager Yuichi Tsuda told the team: "We have made history".

Thursday's brief landing is the second time Hayabusa2 has touched down on the desolate asteroid Ryugu, which lies some 300 million kilometres from Earth.

The complex multi-year mission has also involved sending rover and robots down to the surface.

"I hope Hayabusa2 will return to Earth safely after successfully extracting samples from the asteroid, which would be a first," Kotaro Nogami, Japanese deputy government spokesperson said.

The touchdown was intended to collect pristine materials from beneath the surface of the asteroid that could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth, some 4.6 billion years ago.

To get at those crucial materials, in April an "impactor" was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid's surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

The second touchdown required special preparations because any problems could mean the probe would lose the precious materials already gathered during its first landing.

A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2's camera after the April blast showed that parts of the asteroid's surface are covered with materials that are "obviously different" from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters before the latest touchdown.

"It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater," Project Manager Yuichi Tsuda said.

The touchdown is the last major part of Hayabusa2's mission, and when the probe returns to Earth next year, scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life from its samples.

"I'm really looking forward to analysing these materials," Yoshikawa said.

At about the size of a large refrigerator and equipped with solar panels to keep it powered, Hayabusa2 is the successor to JAXA's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa - Japanese for falcon.

The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014, and has a price tag of around 30 billion yen ($270m). </s> TOKYO (AFP) - Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe touched down on a distant asteroid on Thursday (July 11), the country’s space agency said, on a mission to collect samples that could shed light on the history of the solar system.

“The control room received Doppler data showing that the probe appears to have touched down successfully,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) spokesman Takayuki Tomobe told Agence France-Presse.

“But Doppler only shows the speed and altitude so we will need definitive confirmation,” he added. Additional data readings are expected later in the day.

A successful landing on the Ryugu asteroid, about 300 million kilometres from Earth, would make it the second time the probe has touched down on the asteroid as part of a complex mission that has also involved sending rovers and robots.

A livestream of JAXA’s control room for the mission showed scientists standing nervously watching monitors with incoming data as the probe neared Ryugu.

As the data came in showing the apparently successful touchdown, agency officials broke into applause and shook hands with each other.

The much-anticipated touchdown was only brief, and intended to allow Hayabusa2 to collect samples blasted from beneath Ryugu’s surface.

The mission hopes the samples could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth, some 4.6 billion years ago.

To get at those crucial materials, an "impactor" was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in April, in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid's surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

"This is the second touchdown, but doing a touchdown is a challenge whether it's the first or the second," Mr Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager, told reporters ahead of the mission.

"The whole team will do our best so that we'll be able to complete the operation," he said.

Hayabusa2's first touchdown was in February, when it landed briefly on Ryugu and fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.

The second touchdown requires special preparations because any problems could mean the probe loses the precious materials already gathered during its first landing.

A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2's camera shows that parts of the asteroid's surface are covered with materials that are "obviously different" from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters.

The probe is expected to make a brief touchdown on an area some 20m away from the centre of the crater to collect the unidentified materials believed to be "ejecta" from the blast.

"It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater," Mr Tsuda said.

The touchdown will be the last major part of Hayabusa2's mission, and when the probe returns to Earth next year, scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life from its samples.

"I'm really looking forward to analysing these materials," Mr Yoshikawa said.

The Hayabusa2 mission has attracted international attention, with Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May sending a video to the probe's team ahead of the landing.

"The world is watching. We love you, take care Hayabusa2," the iconic musician told the team.

At about the size of a large refrigerator and equipped with solar panels to keep it powered, Hayabusa2 is the successor to Jaxa's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa - Japanese for falcon.

That probe returned with dust samples from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010, despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey, and was hailed as a scientific triumph.

Hayabusa2's photos of Ryugu, which means "Dragon Palace" in Japanese and refers to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an ancient Japanese tale, show the asteroid has a rough surface full of boulders.

The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014, and has a price tag of around 30 billion yen (S$376 million). The probe is scheduled to return to Earth with its samples in 2020.

But its has already made history, including with the creation of the crater on Ryugu's surface.

In 2005, Nasa's Deep Impact project succeeded in creating an artificial crater on a comet, but only for observation purposes. </s> This image released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows an explosive dropped from Hayabusa2 spacecraft to make a crater on the asteroid Ryugu Friday, April 5, 2019. Japan's space agency JAXA said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully dropped the "small carry-on impactor" made of copper onto the asteroid and collect its underground samples to find possible clues to the origin of the solar system. (JAXA via AP)

This image released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows an explosive dropped from Hayabusa2 spacecraft to make a crater on the asteroid Ryugu Friday, April 5, 2019. Japan's space agency JAXA said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully dropped the "small carry-on impactor" made of copper onto the asteroid and collect its underground samples to find possible clues to the origin of the solar system. (JAXA via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency said an explosive dropped Friday from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system.

Friday’s mission was the riskiest for Hayabusa2 because it had to immediately move away so it wouldn’t get hit by flying shards from the blast.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Hayabusa2 dropped a small explosive box which sent a copper ball the size of a baseball slamming into the asteroid, and that data confirmed the spacecraft had safely evacuated and remained intact. JAXA later confirmed the impact from images transmitted from a camera left behind by the spacecraft which showed the impactor being released and fine particles later spraying dozens of meters (yards) out from a spot on the asteroid.

“The mission was a success,” JAXA project manager Yuichi Tsuda said, beaming. “It is highly likely to have made a crater.”

JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2, which was moved to the other side of the asteroid, back to the site after dust and debris settle for observations and to collect samples of material from the new crater that was unexposed to the sun or space rays. Scientists hope the samples will help them understand the history of the solar system, since asteroids are left over material from its formation.

No such samples have been recovered. In a 2005 “deep impact” mission to a comet, NASA observed fragments after blasting the surface but did not collect them.

Last month, JAXA announced that a group of scientists participating in the Hayabusa2 mission had detected hydroxyl-bearing minerals on the asteroid by analyzing near-infrared spectrometer readings by the spacecraft. It said that could help explain where the Earth’s water came from. The results were published in the online edition of Science magazine.

“So far, Hayabusa2 has done everything as planned, and we are delighted,” mission leader Makoto Yoshikawa said earlier Friday. “But we still have more missions to achieve and it’s too early for us to celebrate.”

Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a small level area on the boulder-strewn asteroid in February, when it also collected some surface dust and small debris. The craft is scheduled to leave the asteroid at the end of 2019 and bring the surface fragments and underground samples back to Earth in late 2020.

The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth.

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JAXA space probe Hayabusa2 successfully fires a bullet at Apollo asteroid 162173 Ryugu, forming a crater which will be used to collect underground samples.