They Made It! Japan's Two Hopping Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu

Authored by space.com and submitted by undue-influence

This spectacular photo shows the view from asteroid Ryugu from the Minerva-II1A rover during a hop after it successfully landed on Sept. 21, 2018. The probe is one of two that landed on Ryugu from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. It's the first time two mobile rovers landed on an asteroid.

The suspense is over: Two tiny hopping robots have successfully landed on an asteroid called Ryugu — and they've even sent back some wild postcards from their new home.

The tiny rovers are part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 asteroid sample-return mission. Engineers with the agency deployed the robots early Friday (Sept. 21), but JAXA waited until today (Sept. 22) to confirm the operation was successful and both rovers made the landing safely.

We are sorry we have kept you waiting! MINERVA-II1 consists of two rovers, 1a & 1b. Both rovers are confirmed to have landed on the surface of Ryugu. They are in good condition and have transmitted photos & data. We also confirmed they are moving on the surface. #asteroidlanding — HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) September 22, 2018

The rovers are part of the MINERVA-II1 program, and are designed to hop along the asteroid's surface, taking photographs and gathering data. In fact, one of the initial images sent home by the hoppers is awfully blurry, since the robot snapped it while still on the go.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Minerva-II1 rover captured this view of asteroid Ryugu (bottom) and the Hayabusa2 spacecraft (at top right) just after the rover separated from the spacecraft on Sept. 21, 2018. Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

In order to complete the deployment, the main spacecraft of the Hayabusa2 mission lowered itself carefully down toward the surface until it was just 180 feet (55 meters) up. After the rovers were on their way, the spacecraft raised itself back up to its typical altitude of about 12.5 miles above the asteroid's surface (20 kilometers).

The MINERVA-II1B rover captured this view of asteroid Ryugu on Sept. 21, 2018 shortly after separating from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The asteroid appears at lower right. Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

The agency still has two more deployments yet to accomplish before it can rest easy: Hayabusa2 is scheduled to deploy a larger rover called MASCOT in October and another tiny hopper next year. And of course, the main spacecraft has a host of other tasks to accomplish during its stay at Ryugu — most notably, to collect a sample of the primitive world to bring home to Earth for laboratory analysis.

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the deployment descent altitude in feet; the measurement in meters remains correct.

Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Pluto_and_Charon on September 22nd, 2018 at 15:43 UTC »

If you're wondering why the pictures are smeared, well they were all taken when the rover were at various stages of descent/hopping. That's why they're so blurry, they were taken by a spinning rover during freefall.

I'm sure we'll see some sharper quality pictures soon, taken when the rovers are stationary.

ionised on September 22nd, 2018 at 15:39 UTC »

I remember meeting members of the team in 2011 at the ISDC. Happy to hear they pulled it off. This sounded bonkers to me at the time, but here we are.

Edit: very late, but I couldn't find my own photo of the team. Here's the official photo a JAXA official sent me from from the 2011 ISDC.

Right: Professor Kawaguchi: Hayabusa Project Manager Mid: Dr. Matsuo : Former Head of Space Activity Commission of Japan Left: Dr. Uesugi : Former Professor of ISAS, Hayabusa Team

And as he said: "No limits, in the Future and Space"

Pluto_and_Charon on September 22nd, 2018 at 15:38 UTC »

Congratulations to JAXA! (Japanese space agency). This is actually the first time we've successfully landed rovers on an asteroid.

Hayabusa2 is such a cool mission. It has loads of separate components

The mothership (for taking samples of the asteroid)

Sample return capsule for sending said samples back to Earth in 2020, equipped with a heat shield and parachute

MINERVA-II1a & b - two small rovers with panoramic colour cameras and temperature sensors (landed yesterday). Locomotion via hopping

MINERVA-II2 - larger rover, due to land next year. Locomotion via rolling. Because they are solar powered the three MINERVA-II rovers have a theoretically indefinite lifespan, they are also autonomous and decide where/when they want to go by themselves

MASCOT - French-German lander, with more scientific instruments, due to land in October. Can hop, but only once. With no solar panels, its lifespan is limited by the capacity of its battery, which is 16 hours.

Explosive charge- used to blow a crater into the asteroid to expose subsurface material not altered by the sun (next year). Hayabusa2 will collect a sample from within the crater, and deploy MINERVA-II2 at the same time.

Remote camera probe to film the explosion caused by the explosive charge, whilst the mothership hides safely behind the other side of the asteroid.

Photo #1, Photo #2 and Photo #3 for those of you who didn't read the article. Lots more surface pictures will be coming back over the next few days as the rovers hop around and explore this miniscule world.