Asteroids & Comets, Space Science, Space Systems

The Japanese Hayabusa-2 spacecraft deployed two rovers onto the asteroid Ryugu

On Friday the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 has successfully placed two mini-rovers named MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B onto the near earth asteroid Ryugu, which is about 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) in diameter:  They Made It! Japan’s Two Hopping Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu.

Hayabusa-2 came within 55 meters of the surface of the asteroid to release the rovers. The spacecraft then moved back about 20 km from the surface. The rovers will explore the surface by short jumps or hops from one spot to another.

Here is a sampling of postings on Tweeter as the spacecraft approached the asteroid and then deployed the rovers: Tweets  by HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) | Twitter:

 

 

The ambitious mission is really just getting started:

  • The larger rover MASCOT will be deployed to the surface in October.
  • The mini-hopper MINERVA-II2 will be deployed in 2019.
  • Samples of the asteroid will be returned to earth in 2020.

Find more images from the spacecraft at Navigation Images from the MINERVA-Ⅱ1 deployment operation | Galleries | JAXA HAYABUSA2 PROJECT.

Animations of the mission events and technologies:

A press conference on the event:

 

====

 

Rocketry, Space participation

Videos: “Landing Model Rockets” – Barnard Propulsion Systems

I’ve posted a couple of times about Joe Barnard‘s development of model rockets that can land vertically like a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage. (See posts here and here.) This article is about Barnard and his rockets: Meet the Amateur Rocketeer Building Self-Landing Replicas of SpaceX Rockets – Motherboard.

Here is the first entry in an upcoming series of tutorial videos explaining the model rocket landing techniques:

In this video, Barnard goes into some detail about a recent test of a model of a Falcon Heavy upper stage:

====

Rockets, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

Videos: The evolution of the BFR and flying artists around the Moon

A couple of interesting and informative videos about the SpaceX BFR and the lunar fly-by announced on Monday:

** “Why does SpaceX keep changing the BFR?” –  Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut:

Elon Musk updated the world with the plans for SpaceX’s BFR at SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne. I attended to learn about all the new exciting changes! For now, we’re going to just look at what has changed with the vehicle over the years and why it keeps changing. Later we’ll do more in depth videos about Yusaku Maezawa’s beautiful #dearmoon project and the weird reentry system of the new BFR!

*** Sending Artists To The Moon With SpaceX – Scott Manley

SpaceX’s press event to announce a paying passenger on a flight around the moon took an amazing turn when Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa declared that he wanted the trip to be all about Art.

====

 

Living in Space, Space Systems, SpaceCasts

Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – Sept.21.2018

Here is the latest episode of the Space to Ground weekly report from NASA on activities related to the International Space Station:

*** A brief item about a sediment study underway on the station:

Quantifying Cohesive Sediment Dynamics for Advanced Environmental Modeling (BCAT-CS) focuses on the study of forces between particles that cluster together by studying sediments of quartz and clay particles. By conducting the research aboard the International Space Station (ISS), it is possible to separate the forces acting on the particles over a short range (adhesive forces) versus those acting over a long range (cohesive forces). The quartz/clay system is commonly found in a wide variety of environmental settings (such as rivers, lakes, and oceans) and plays an important role in technological efforts related to deep sea hydrocarbon drilling and carbon dioxide sequestration.

*** A NASA high altitude balloon experiment observed “rare electric blue clouds”:

On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Read the story: https://go.nasa.gov/2QPcrOD. Forming fifty miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home in the mesosphere. The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help us better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes, and other planetary atmospheres, and may even improve weather forecasting. 

====

Asteroids & Comets, Pluto and beyond, Space Science

Video: Where we are – Science spacecraft locations for Oct. 2018

Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society gives

a tour of the spacecraft currently exploring from within our solar system. All planets and spacecraft locations are shown at their location for October 1st, 2018.

====

Everyone can participate in space