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- Japan’s JAXA space program has its Hayabusa2 probe heading for Earth and is approaching its sample delivery point.
- The spacecraft orbited the space rock called Ryugu, shot it with a projectile, and took a sample before returning to Earth.
- NASA’s own asteroid sample return mission is also about to return to our planet.
Lately, all eyes have been on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe as it conducts its touch operation and ready to secure a sample of the Bennu space rock, but it is not the only asteroid sample mission being carried out. currently underway. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, beat NASA with its Hayabusa2 mission that visited the asteroid Ryugu, “bombarded” it with projectiles, and collected its own samples.
Now, about a year after it left Ryugu, JAXA’s probe is closing in on Earth and ready to deliver its incredibly valuable cargo. Currently, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft is programmed to drop its safe container of asteroid material towards Earth on December 6, and is expected to land in Woomera, Australia, where eager scientists will be waiting for it.
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Like NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft’s goal was to investigate its target asteroid and then eventually collect a sample. He managed to achieve his goals with great success. To have a better chance of searching for a new sample of the asteroid’s material, the probe was launched as a kind of self-firing “cannon” that blew up a crater on Ryugu. Finally, Hayabusa2 managed to collect around 100 mg of material from the asteroid.
That may seem like a small amount, and if we’re honest it is, but we’re talking about material from a space rock that orbits the Sun. It doesn’t take much to conduct a scientific investigation of what it contains, and scientists have the hope that it contains some very tantalizing secrets about the formation of the asteroid and others like it, and perhaps even a clue to how the building blocks of life came to Earth.
The tweet announcing the imminent delivery was sent via Hayabusa2’s official Twitter account:
A message from Prime Minister Tsuda: “We are now on a landing course for Earth. The altitude will now gradually decrease towards Woomera. Fasten your seat belt firmly and, if you are traveling with small children, help them. The landing approach direction is programmed to be 1-5-0 “
The asteroid samples will be of great interest to scientists, and combined with the asteroid material collected by the OSIRIS-REx probe, it may not be long before we learn a lot of very interesting things about the space rocks that populate our solar system. . In the meantime, however, we will have to wait and wait for the sample delivery to go as planned.
Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in virtual reality, wearable devices, smartphones, and future technology. Most recently, Mike served as a technology editor at The Daily Dot, and has been featured in USA Today, Time.com, and in many other print and web media. His love of reporting is second only to his addiction to games.
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