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The Japanese spaceship Hayabusa 2 is almost home, with a precious cargo on board! The sample return mission started from asteroid Ryugu (162173 Ryugu) just over a year ago, with soil samples and data that could provide clues to the early days of our Solar System. On December 6, 2020, the champion’s return container will land in the Australian outback.
“Organic materials are the origin of life on Earth, but we still don’t know where they come from,” Makoto Yoshikawa, mission manager of the Hayabusa 2 project, said at a press conference. “We hope to find clues to the origin of life on Earth by analyzing the details of the organic materials reported by Hayabusa 2.”
JAXA, the Japanese space agency, said the capsule containing the samples is expected to land in the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia, a limited military test site of approximately 122,000 square kilometers, located approximately 450 km northwest of Adelaide. .
On November 25, the Hayabusa 2 team received permission from Australia to move into re-entry orbit. They conducted a trajectory correction maneuver on November 26 to put the spacecraft in the correct entry corridor.
The spacecraft will drop the capsule containing the samples from a distance of approximately 220,000 km (136,700 miles) from Earth. The capsule is quite small, only about 40 cm (15 inches) in diameter. A heat shield will protect the capsule during its fiery plunge into our atmosphere. When the capsule reaches an altitude of about six miles above the ground, a parachute will open to allow for a hopefully soft landing. A beacon will activate to transmit the capsule’s position and multiple receivers have been installed around the target area to retrieve those signals. Radars, drones and helicopters will be ready to assist in search and recovery.
Without these measures, the search for the small capsule “would be extremely difficult,” Yoshikawa said.
Below is the chronology of events, as of 11/30/20. Japanese Standard Time (JST) is UTC +9. If you happen to live in Australia, here’s information on how you might see the capsule drop.
Hayabusa 2 launched in December 2014 and arrived in Ryugu in mid-2018. A German-built MASCOT lander collected samples from Ryugu in February and July 2019, storing each sample in separate chambers. The mission team said they believe at least 300 milligrams of material have been collected, and possibly more.
For the Hayabusa 2 probe, this is not the end of the mission. After dropping the capsule, it will head for another small distant asteroid named 1998KY26, with the journey expected to take 10 years.
Additional information:
JAXA
Press material from the briefing on 11/30/20
PhysOrg
Scientists will compare the chemical composition of the samples with rocks from the Earth and the Moon, trying to understand the factors behind the Earth’s origin, as if asteroids played a role in bringing water to Earth.
Meanwhile, the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will overtake Earth and continue on to a new mission. It will head for another small distant asteroid named 1998KY26 on a journey that is expected to last 10 years.
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