Two scouter send to the aerofoil of an asteroid by a Japanese spacecraft have landed successfully , a thrilling moment in the history of space geographic expedition .
" Both rover are confirm to have land on the surface of Ryugu , " the Hayabusa-2 team send on Twitter . " They are in adept consideration and have transmitted photos & data . We also confirmed they are move on the surface . "
Each tiny rover weighs about 1 kilo ( 2 pounds ) , and they ’re contrive to hop across the surface of the asteroid . They were carried to Ryugu , located about 280 million km ( 175 million mi ) from Earth , by Hayabusa-2 after launch in December 2014 .
In late June 2018 Hayabusa-2arrived at Ryugu , which measures about 1 kilometer ( 0.6 miles ) across . The space vehicle will remain here until December 2019 , map the surface of the asteroid and performing a slew of scientific investigations . This includes sending four Lander to the surface of the asteroid , with Minerva II-1 being the first of the landing effort .
Early on Friday , reaching a distance as low as 55 meters ( 180 feet ) from the asteroid , the ballistic capsule released these first two Lander . The successful landing means they are the first moveable rovers ever to be deploy on an asteroid .
The rovers will " hop " across the airfoil byspinning a massinside of them . This transfers momentum , which do them to tip or jump across the surface . Each movement must be carefully controlled so the landers do n’t unintentionally leap too high and escape the asteroid ’s soberness .
This is because the gravitational pull of the asteroid is incredibly watery . While on Earth they weigh a kg , on Ryugu each lander has a relative mass of less than a poop of a gram . Each hop can attain a aloofness of several meter , go at up to 9 centimeters ( 3.5 inches ) per second .
On board each rover are cameras that will institutionalize back images from the asteroid . They also contain sensors that will measure the Earth’s surface temperature at dissimilar locations . The images and data point will be sent back to Hayabusa-2 , which will relay the information to Earth .
Here ’s how the wanderer move across the surface
Hayabusa-2 is the heir to theHayabusa mission , which visited the asteroid Itokawa in the other 2000s . This spacecraft also attempted to deploy a lander , called MINERVA , but it failed andwas loston its mode to the asteroid .
That first commission did manage to take back a flyspeck sample of the asteroid to Earth , though , despite the system designed to collect materialmostly give out . Hayabusa-2 will attempt to improve this , using an impactor to hit the surface and mould a crater . The spacecraft will then attempt to scoop up material from the crater .
As mentioned Hayabusa-2 also has two other landers , the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout ( MASCOT ) and Rover 2 , also part of the Minerva - II mission . The former will be release at the start of October , and the latter next year .
But for now , we have the very exciting news program that these first two lander have been successful . The drama has been somewhat comparable to thePhilae landingon Comet 67P back in November 2014 , the first - ever landing on a comet . Now all eyes are on Rovers 1A and 1B.
