Recently, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced the successful landing of the two rovers on a moving asteroid for the very first time in history.
Hayabusa2 spacecraft has spent many years hunting the 162173 Ryugu asteroid before it was able to deploy two robots on its surface. Now, all the hard work have paid off with its first photos of the asteroid’s surface.
The rovers will help Hayabusa2 in its mission, which will allow scientists to learn more about the Earth-orbiting asteroid through the samples taken. They’re designed to capture images from their cameras and gather data. Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014, ultimately catching up with the asteroid in June 2018. On Sept. 21 two MINERVA-II1 rovers were launched and the next day, JAXA confirmed that Rover-1A and Rover-1B had landed on Ryugu, releasing the images to the public.
The asteroid is made of ice, minerals, and organic compounds. The national space agency hopes that by studying the asteroid, they’ll learn about the origins of inner planets and how water and other compounds on Earth developed. Hayabusa2 will spend another year studying the asteroid before departing in Dec. 2019.
Photo taken by Rover-1B on Sept 21 at ~13:07 JST. It was captured just after separation from the spacecraft. Ryugu's surface is in the lower right. The misty top left region is due to the reflection of sunlight. 1B seems to rotate slowly after separation, minimising image blur. pic.twitter.com/P71gsC9VNI
— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) September 22, 2018
This dynamic photo was captured by Rover-1A on September 22 at around 11:44 JST. It was taken on Ryugu's surface during a hop. The left-half is the surface of Ryugu, while the white region on the right is due to sunlight. (Hayabusa2 Project) pic.twitter.com/IQLsFd4gJu
— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) September 22, 2018
