Skip to main content

Japanese space probe to begin exploring asteroid Ryugu

Animation: Asteroidlander MASCOT on board Hayabusa2

After a 42-month journey through space, the Japanese probe Hayabusa 2 has finally reached its destination — a rocky little cube named Ryugu, formally known as Asteroid 162173, some 200 million miles from Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed the arrival of the spacecraft in an announcement earlier this week.

During its 18-month mission, the space probe will analyze the tiny rock with a series of tests, deploying three miniature rovers to the surface. Before leaving, it will even blast a new crater into the surface, gather up some of the material dislodged, and then return to Earth with the samples aboard.

Rise and shine @MASCOT2018 ! It's a new day and we have arrived at #Ryugu! Take a look… #hayabusa2 pic.twitter.com/5erImiqeOi

— haya2kun (@haya2kun) June 28, 2018

The asteroid was named after a dragon’s palace from a Japanese folk tale. In the story, a Japanese fisherman emerges from the undersea lair with a box filled with treasure.

It’s technically classified a near-Earth object (NEO), as it orbits in an elliptical path from Mars to Earth and back again. There’s no chance it will strike the Earth, however, at least not in the next few hundred years.

The spacecraft used its thrusters to maneuver into a stable orbit within 12 miles of Ryugu, where it began to analyze the asteroid for the rest of its mission. Ryugu, strewn with boulders, is roughly diamond-shaped and features an equatorial ridge. As Earth Sky points out, it’s similar in appearance to the asteroid Bennu, the target that the NASA Osiris-REx mission will encounter in 2020.

The mission, which was launched in December 2014, carries four small landers. Three are from Japan (called MINERVA-II) and one is from Germany (called MASCOT-1, for Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout). These aren’t the conventional rovers you’re familiar with, like the ones taking selfies on Mars. Because the half-mile-wide Ryugu has very low gravity, the small landers have only the weight of a drop of water here on Earth.

So the landers don’t have wheels — instead, the small foot-wide boxes have internal offset weights that allow them to “flop” across the surface with short hops.

Hayabusa 2 will also get to blow some stuff up while it’s there. Using a “space cannon,” the probe will blast a copper projectile at the surface to create a landing crater and expose material from beneath the surface. During a brief touch-and-go landing on the surface, the probe will scoop up some of the debris and store it for the return voyage.

In 2020, the probe will drop the samples in a saucer-shaped reentry capsule which will land via parachute in Australia.

“Together with all of you, we have become the first eyewitnesses to see asteroid Ryugu,” said project manager Yuichi Tsuda. “I feel this is an amazing honor as we proceed with mission operations.”

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Austin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Mark’s first encounter with high-tech was a TRS-80. He spent 20 years working for Nintendo and Xbox as a writer and…
See the crater blasted into an asteroid by a Japanese spacecraft
jaxa ryugu crater impact 20190425 01 1

Images taken by the ONC-T: Left image: Taken on March 22, 2019. Right image: Taken on April 25, 2019. These images were captured by the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic onboard Hayabusa2. JAXA, The University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, The University of Aizu, AIST

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been investigating an asteroid called Ryugu with their spacecraft Hayabusa2. In order to collect dust and other matter from the asteroid, Hayabusa2 shot at it with a small mass of copper to release gravel.

Read more
No, it’s not a Michael Bay movie, but a spacecraft just bombed an asteroid
hayabusa 2 sample asteroid ryugu jaxa landing artists conception

Call it life imitating Michael Bay movies if you want! A spacecraft this week bombed an asteroid as it hurtled through space, approximately 186 million miles from Earth. The Japanese spacecraft, called Hayabusa2, released its explosive cargo Thursday night from a height of around 1,500 feet above asteroid 162173 Ryugu. The small carry-on impactor (SCI) projectile that it released, containing plastic explosive, blew a small crater in the asteroid.

To protect itself during the explosion, Hayabusa2 maneuvered to the far side of the asteroid to avoid any damage. It will later return to the crater site to collect a sample to bring back to Earth. The crater made by the projectile could measure up to 32 feet across, depending on the exact circumstances at the time of impact.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more