Amazing Meteor Landing

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by mc1

Japan.....

That's right. Just googled it.

CNN:
"Japanese scientists have successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on the distant asteroid Ryugu for the second time as part of an ongoing mission to help explore the origins of the solar system. ... The spacecraft first arrived at the asteroid in June 2018 to carry out experiments".

[robj144]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

That's right. Just googled it.

CNN:
"Japanese scientists have successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on the distant asteroid Ryugu for the second time as part of an ongoing mission to help explore the origins of the solar system. ... The spacecraft first arrived at the asteroid in June 2018 to carry out experiments".

Actually, they did it way before that too:

"Hayabusa (Japanese: はやぶさ, "Peregrine falcon") was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. Hayabusa, formerly known as MUSES-C for Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C, was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, Hayabusa studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid and collected samples in the form of tiny grains of asteroidal material, which were returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft on 13 June 2010."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa

[mc1]

Originally Posted by robj144

Just did a quick calculation for the escape velocity on the asteroid. If you can jump to a height of 0.89 mm or 0.04 inches on Earth, you'll jump off the asteroid into space never to return to the asteroid. Pretty sure some insects could do that.

I think that explains the lack of bugs on the asteroid.

Fun fact: The froghopper (aka spittlebug) can jump 70 cm (over 2 feet) in the air, and when they leave the ground their acceleration is 400 gs (400 times the gravity of Earth).

[TBman]

I went to nasa.gov to read up on this and the site has been down for some time now. Odd. Maybe aliens took over?

[mc1]

Originally Posted by TBman

I went to nasa.gov to read up on this and the site has been down for some time now. Odd. Maybe aliens took over?

Probably their server was hit by a meteorite!

I just checked and it worked for me, so perhaps there's a issue at your end.

[mtdmind]

I was reading that the whole landing, gathering and takeoff took only 6 seconds. Five of which was used for gathering the sample.

[DesertTwang]

Happy to see so much enthusiasm for ... ahem... our mission. That's right -- in my day job, I'm a science writer for the University of Arizona, where the OSIRIS-REx mission is headquartered. I was fortunate to be in the room with some of the mission team members when the spacecraft performed the TAG (touch-and-go) maneuver on the asteroid on Tuesday.

By the way, the team members are always very adamant about pointing out that we didn't land on asteroid Bennu, but we did a touch-and-go maneuver. Landing would be where the spacecraft touches down on the asteroid and stays there.

Did you know that no other planetary body, including Earth, has been mapped and photographed to the amount of detail that Bennu has? It's true. They literally photographed and mapped the whole thing down to an inch. It's quite amazing.

I just finished writing up a story about some really cool new findings, which will be announced on Monday. Until then, I can't talk about them, but stay tuned.

Definitely a very exciting mission.

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by DesertTwang

By the way, the team members are always very adamant about pointing out that we didn't land on asteroid Bennu, but we did a touch-and-go maneuver. Landing would be where the spacecraft touches down on the asteroid and stays there.

Apparently, none is a pilot. They're both landings, but only one is a full stop. Both can be recorded in their logbooks.

I bet that's a fascinating job, DT... certainly an interesting mission.

[mc1]

DesertTwang, thanks for weighing in, that's super cool. See if you can grab a piece to make a wicked pick!

[mtdmind]

DesertTwang, thank you for your elucidations. Enjoyed the information!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DesertTwang

Happy to see so much enthusiasm for ... ahem... our mission. That's right -- in my day job, I'm a science writer for the University of Arizona, where the OSIRIS-REx mission is headquartered. I was fortunate to be in the room with some of the mission team members when the spacecraft performed the TAG (touch-and-go) maneuver on the asteroid on Tuesday.

By the way, the team members are always very adamant about pointing out that we didn't land on asteroid Bennu, but we did a touch-and-go maneuver. Landing would be where the spacecraft touches down on the asteroid and stays there.

Did you know that no other planetary body, including Earth, has been mapped and photographed to the amount of detail that Bennu has? It's true. They literally photographed and mapped the whole thing down to an inch. It's quite amazing.

I just finished writing up a story about some really cool new findings, which will be announced on Monday. Until then, I can't talk about them, but stay tuned.

Definitely a very exciting mission.

Very cool, will you post a summary of those findings here ?

[Photojeep]

Originally Posted by DesertTwang

Happy to see so much enthusiasm for ... ahem... our mission. That's right -- in my day job, I'm a science writer for the University of Arizona, where the OSIRIS-REx mission is headquartered. I was fortunate to be in the room with some of the mission team members when the spacecraft performed the TAG (touch-and-go) maneuver on the asteroid on Tuesday.

By the way, the team members are always very adamant about pointing out that we didn't land on asteroid Bennu, but we did a touch-and-go maneuver. Landing would be where the spacecraft touches down on the asteroid and stays there.

Did you know that no other planetary body, including Earth, has been mapped and photographed to the amount of detail that Bennu has? It's true. They literally photographed and mapped the whole thing down to an inch. It's quite amazing.

I just finished writing up a story about some really cool new findings, which will be announced on Monday. Until then, I can't talk about them, but stay tuned.

Definitely a very exciting mission.

Very cool DesertTwang!
I read in today's paper that the "door" to the storage compartment may not have closed properly and its "leaking" some of the material it scooped up. Hopefully this can be corrected so you guys won't have to go back and do it all again!

Best,
PJ

[mc1]

Originally Posted by Photojeep

Very cool DesertTwang!
I read in today's paper that the "door" to the storage compartment may not have closed properly and its "leaking" some of the material it scooped up. Hopefully this can be corrected so you guys won't have to go back and do it all again!

Best,
PJ

D'oh! Pebble jambed in the podbay door! Maybe it's leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for a return visit.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by Kerbie

Apparently, none is a pilot. They're both landings, but only one is a full stop. Both can be recorded in their logbooks.

"Hello, this this is your pilot. Thank you for flying Delta today, we will be landing at our destination in about 10 minutes. The weather is a balmy 80 with plenty of sunshine. Please stay seated until the plane comes to a complete halt before gathering all your belongings. We are running just a tad late, so our landing won't be a full stop. Please see the instruction card in the pocket of the seat in front of you for details. Have a great day, and thanks again for flying with us."