The next stage in the Hayabusa2 mission occurred this morning with the release and successful landing of the MASCOT rover on the asteroid Ryugu. This comes as a part of the same mission which brought us the first photos from the surface of an asteroid and will culminate with a sample return from Ryugu in 2020. MASCOT is a joint effort by JAXA and The German Aerospace Center (DLR), so a way to think of it is a little German rover that hitched a ride on a Japanese space probe. Pretty awesome!
Hello #Earth, hello @haya2kun! I promised to send you some pictures of #Ryugu so here’s a shot I took during my descent. Can you spot my shadow? #AsteroidLanding pic.twitter.com/dmcilFl5ms
— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018
MASCOT is different from Rover-1A and 1B in that it’s a larger cube-shaped machine that is powered by batteries rather than solar power, and was designed to last under a day. By contrast to this limited life expectancy, the rover is equipped with an assortment of rather powerful sensing equipment – infrared spectrometer, magnetometer, radiometer, and a normal camera, among other hardware – to take as in-depth as possible a study of Ryugu during its active hours on the surface.
And then I found myself in a place like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery and danger! I landed on asteroid Ryugu! #AsteroidLanding https://t.co/EDwh99aImv
— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018
While at the time I write this I haven’t seen confirmation that MASCOTs battery has been drained, it’s safe to presume this has happened given its last update was 12 hours ago, reporting that all the research had been done and the battery was still going strong, but given the fact the battery was rated for such a short time span, and that the rover had done its job, it’s safe to presume by now it’s all over and we’re just waiting to begin processing all the data gathered during the experiments.
I’ve taken measurements with all my experiments, and my battery is holding up! Still going strong! #AsteroidLanding
— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018
Until more info comes in regarding MASCOT I can’t say too much more about it. Naturally, I’ll share some links here for the sake of it. That’s the thing about covering some of these events as they happen – there’s only so much to talk about, and I don’t want to bore readers with raw statistics.
I’m doing it! I’m descending to #Ryugu! Can’t stop me now! #AsteroidLanding
— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018
I love the personality that Twitter allows those in charge of these missions to give their machines. You have to love tweets like the above one…
Below we have a video (Japanese text, but easy enough to follow) covering the full mission.
And here’s a more specific one on MASCOT itself.
Enjoy!