The Japanese HAYABUSA-2 spacecraft is about to make history again tonight as it swoops down on asteroid Ryugu to shoot a 2 kg copper plate, which will create a crater about 10 meters in diameter on the surface of Ryugu. The projectile will be shot from a distance of 500 m using a 9.5 kg shaped charge of plasticized HMX. The blast will expose sub-surface material, samples of which will be collected from within the crater after about 2 weeks in another touch-down operation. The fireworks should start shortly after 10:00 p.m. EDT.
This promises to be an even more exciting event than the rock collection operation in February.
Hopefully, some of us will find this more satisfying to watch than the increasingly desperate shotgun pellets of trump tweets or Congress’s effort to blast a hole in AG Barr’s trump-shield or the DK rock-throwing over Joe Biden’s touchy personality.
Hayabusa2 was launched on Dec 3, 2014 and arrived at near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu on June 27, 2018. HAYABUSA-2 will head home in Dec 2019 and drop the samples and the enclosing capsule into Earth’s atmosphere in Dec 2020.
The spacecraft has been descending slowly for the past several hours and is now within 1200 meters of the surface.
Here is the link to the webcast, which will start around 9:00 p.m. EDT. The coverage will include real-time images which will also be posted at www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/... but no live video from the spacecraft, since the comm. data rate is quite low.
The Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) Operation
Here is some additional info on the SCI and the timeline of the operation.
The plate is made of copper because the composition of Ryugu does not include copper, hence it will be easily distinguishable from other elements during the analysis of Ryugu samples. Similarly, the explosion will take place high above the asteroid to minimize surface contamination.
The diameter of the crater is expected to be around 10 m but could be smaller or larger depending on the condition of the surface and the orientation of the copper plate on impact. The crater depth will be about 10% of the diameter.
Note that this not an asteroid deflection experiment; the main purpose of the mission is to bring back samples of asteroid material for study in understanding the origins of the Solar System. Earth is not in any danger of a collision with this near-earth asteroid.
The objective of the Hayabusa-2 sample return mission is to visit and explore the C-type asteroid 1999 JU3 (Ryugu), a space body of about 920 m in length and of particular interest to researchers, because it consists of 4.5 billion-year-old material that has been altered very little. Measurements taken from Earth suggest that the asteroid's rock may have come into contact with water. The carbonaceous or C-type asteroid is expected to contain organic and hydrated minerals. directory.eoportal.org/...
Location of Ryugu -
Here is a summary of the operation -
Here is a detailed timeline of the operation. Note that Japan time JST is 11 hours ahead of EDT.
SCI deployment — 10:13 p.m. EDT
DCAM3 (camera) deployment — 10:31 p.m. EDT
SCI detonation — 10:53 p.m. EDT
SCI tests on the ground -
Here is a video, which includes an animation of tonight’s main event -
The HAYABUSA-2 Touchdown Operation in February 2019
The spacecraft has been in orbit around Ryugu since June of 2018 and had earlier deployed a few small hopping landers on the asteroid.
In February 2019, the spacecraft touched down to collect some rock sample. That operation included firing a small projectile into the surface. The spacecraft approached the surface of the asteroid with a sampling horn. When the horn touched the surface, a projectile (5-gram tantalum bullet) was fired at 300 m/s into the surface. The resulting ejecta particles was collected by a catcher at the top of the horn.
Other Launches in the past week
This has been yet another busy week for space launches. Here are some of the highlights, in case you missed them -
SpaceX Heavy is getting ready for its first operational launch next Monday -
Epilogue
2019 is shaping up to be an exciting and productive year for the space program, with new satellite launches, crewed spacecraft from SpaceX and Boeing, progress by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, moon rovers and further inroads into the trip to the Moon and Mars.
Check out spaceflightnow.com/… for an up-to-date list of space launches planned this year.
And let’s keep working to elect Democrats into office, who will spend our tax dollars on Science, not walls.
Further Reading
- Main website — www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/…
- wiki — en.wikipedia.org/…
- What to Expect When Hayabusa2 Blows a Hole in Asteroid Ryugu — www.planetary.org/…
- Asteroids and Planetary Defense — www.dailykos.com/...
Late Update
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