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The skies of South Australia will light up this weekend when a six-year space operation, the first of its kind, ends.
The Hayabusa2 mission will end in the desert near Woomera, very far from its launch point in Japan and millions of kilometers from the asteroid it detected.
“We hope to find clues to the origin of life on Earth,” said mission leader Makoto Yoshikawa.
“Organic materials are the origin of life on Earth, but we still don’t know where they come from.”
The spacecraft was launched in 2014 before following, chasing, and finally landing on an asteroid in 2018.
In addition to photos, data and videos, the spacecraft collected matter from the surface and deeper into the asteroid.
“These samples will be very valuable,” Federal Science Minister Karen Andrews said.
“Clearly Australia is a very reliable space partner.
“This is the first time ever that there has been a sample below the surface of an asteroid that has landed on Earth.
“This comes from an asteroid that’s about 4.6 billion years old, which is just amazing.”
Japanese scientists arrived in Woomera in preparation for the landing, scheduled for Sunday.
Hayabusa2’s official Twitter feed now features videos of emus roaming the landing area and lizards delighting visitors.
The joy for the locals will come when the capsule, approximately one cubic meter in size, returns to Earth’s atmosphere, bringing with it a “comet-like” light show for the skies over South Australia.
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