Update from the chair of the ISTVS Robotics Committee, Dr Lutz Richter:
Just weeks after successfully acquiring a sample of surface material on the small, primitive near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, the Japanese HAYABUSA-2 space mission again succeeded in a novel and difficult maneuver. After due preparation, the spacecraft on April 5 successfully deployed an explosive package to the surface of the asteroid from a safe distance of 500 m.
In a preprogrammed sequence, HAYABUSA-2 in the faint gravitation field of the asteroid maneuvered to the other side of the body before the Small Carry-On Impactor (SCI) reached the surface, propelling a copper mass towards the surface at more than 2 km/sec velocity upon detonation of an explosive charge.
HAYABUSA-2 at the same time released a small cubesat-sized daughter spacecraft which was positioned such as to directly observe the detonation and the ensuing plume of material ejected by the event, successfully transmitting this critical data to the main spacecraft. The intent of the experiment is to study the internal structure of asteroids through observation of excavated, subsurface material and to study how in the future asteroids could be diverted from their course by similar operations, to avert a collision with Earth.
After returning to its regular observing post some 20 km from the asteroid, HAYABUSA-2 will approach the crater created in the impactor operation and observe it in detail. If deemed feasible, it would then later in the year be maneuvered to acquire a second sample, this time from exposed subsurface material, for return to Earth along with the initial sample captured in February.
ISTVS congratulates Japan and the JAXA space agency on this achievement.
image: JAXA. “This image captured by the camera separated from Hayabusa2 (DCAM3) shows ejection from Ryugu's surface, which was caused by the collision of the SCI against Ryugu.”