It stunned, flashed, then disappeared into the flash. Early Sunday morning local time, Japan’s sample capsule Haibusa 2 spacecraft oo The Australian mining city gazed at the atmosphere above Kuber Paddy, filling the sky with a momentary glow of fire.
Around a dozen people gathered and mingled at 4:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m.) local time, above the Lookout Cave Motel in downtown. The tripod was erected and the camera equipment was fine-tuned and pointed to the sky. Then, without sound, a flickering point of light appeared from the darkness. He moved quickly. Crowds erupted with “Oohs” and some pointed their phones at the sky.
Among those brought in by the show were Ross, 34, of Townsville, and his two sons, Max, 6, and Chase, 8. “It was great,” Ross said. “It was worth getting up early.”
Inside the capsule, LK is the first susceptor sample of an asteroid. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JXA) confirmed that the 16-inch container went further down 200 miles southeast of Kuber Pedi at about 3:37 a.m. local time on a flat, ocher ground in the Woomera Prohibited area. PT, Saturday)
The landing is the culmination of a decade of work done by JAXA scientists and engineers, and it comes six years after Hayabusa 2, which is about the size of a washing shing machine, departing from Earth. The spacecraft traveled more than a year to the nearest planet, Rayugu, in a near-and-a-half-billion-mile journey, using a special camera, radar and infrared imager to survey the spinning top-shaped rock. On two occasions in 2019, he briefly collected samples from the surface in a snatch-and-go maneuver.
Masaki Fujimoto, deputy director of JXA’s Institute for Space and Astronomical Sciences (ISAS), says the mission is one of the defining moments of his life, and as he approached, it was clear that the spectacular end and recovery operation would be Butterwit.
“This is the last time we’ll all be together,” Fujimoto said.
There is still some work to be done to ensure that the contents of the capsule are safe. The retrieval mission took place in the early darkness and the collection of the capsule is yet to be confirmed.
Outback adventure
The Australian Australian Space Agency and the Department of Defense (DOD) played a significant role in the safe return of the capsule. DOD operates the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA), a vast land, about half the size of the United Kingdom, where the capsule was guided after being released from Hybusa 2 on Saturday. Residents continued to pass through the region for about 12 hours as the road was closed as a precautionary measure.
JXA engineers tightened the space landing zone to a tenth of its size, with some skillful maneuvering as the spacecraft returned to Earth.
This sample is approximately per second in the Earth’s atmosphere.5. at a speed of miles per hour, but as it hit the atmosphere it slowly descended to 110 yards, threw off its heat and deployed its parachute. After gliding for about 20 minutes, it landed on the WPA’s red, Mars-like plains.
To help locate the sample capsule, members of the defense force began burning into the atmosphere, tracking it with ground cameras and radar. This enabled the JAXA team to find the sample and send it to its helicopter team, to take off and deliver it at about 4:47 p.m., local. The first person to receive the honor of touching the capsule was a security officer, says Satoru Nakazawa, who led the recovery mission.
Once he had received the capsule, the recovery team took him to a laboratory at the Woomera Range Operations Center, known as the Quick Look facility or QLF.
What’s in a box?
The team predicted that the Hybusa 2A collected about one gram of material from Raigu, based on observations from the spacecraft’s cameras. Confirmation of the exact capture during the two heroes of Hayabusa 2 is expected next week.
JXA’s expert retrieval team found the capsule at 3:34 a.m. local time and took it back to QLF for testing. According to JXA’s Haibusa 2 Twitter account, all operations ended at 6:01 a.m. local time (6:31 p.m.). “The operation was complete.” Read the tweet.
Hajime Yano, a scientist with ISAS, says the sample capsule will not be opened until the ISAS facility returns to Japan. However, a device that could measure small amounts of gas in a sample was erected inside the QLF to perform the first analysis of the capsule.
The facility includes a clean room, and staff must be dressed in protective gear from head to toe – not due to some long-term unfamiliar planetary disease or even anxiety. COVID-19, But to protect the sample from any contamination. Upon returning, Yano and his team punched the bottom of the capsule to find any residual gas. Preliminary analysis will enable researchers to tell whether Haibusa 2 succeeded in stripping fragments of rock and debris from the surface of Raigun.
Fujimoto says the capsule will be opened in Japan “around December 20”. The inclusion of the capsule is expected to improve our understanding of the early solar system and the Earth.
Previous observations of Ryugu by Haibusa 2 have indicated that there are traces of water-bearing minerals within the planet. Some scientists believe that water was brought to the surface of the earth and possibly, how biological matter rained down on the early planet and life began.
Return to Woomera
Many members of the JXA team will now focus on Mars’ two moons Phobos and Demos. The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission is set to begin in 2024 and will probably return a sample obtained from the Phobos surface by 2029.
The mission will feature partnerships with NASA, the French Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA). It also features another major partner: Australia Australia. Although not officially confirmed, Fujimoto has indicated that those samples will also come down in the outback.
“From my experience this time around, I’m really inclined to have Woomera as a landing place,” he said. “We want to continue to collaborate.”
Fujimoto says JXA’s interests and those of the Australian Australian Space Agency are closely aligned. Megan Clark, head of the Gan Australian Space Agency, is keen to advance the relationship between Japan and Australia Australia, which has kept the country’s makeover agency growing.
“International partnerships are important to us,” he said. “Without the depth of international partnership, we can transform our own space industry and not create employment here.”
The sample return mission to Haibusa 2 is over, but the spacecraft has not retired. JXA engineers and scientists will begin investigating two other asteroids in the next decade. And the works may also have another hibiscus mission. JAXA employees have left tantalizing signs that this could be a trilogy in the future. Shall we see a hibus 3? That is a different possibility.
A press conference detailing the sample recovery operation is scheduled for Saturday at 11pm for PT, which includes Megan Clark, Fujimoto and other representatives of JXA. You can find the flow below.
