2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
The Hayabusa-2 interplanetary station successfully completed the second soil sampling from the area near the man-made impact crater on the Ryugu asteroid. This happened early in the morning of July 11, the device has already transmitted to Earth confirmation of the success of the entire operation, the rendezvous operation was broadcast on YouTube.
The automatic station Hayabusa-2 has been operating in orbit around the 500-meter near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu for almost a year, and during this time it has managed to map its surface and land on it two MINERVA-II descent modules and the MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) apparatus, as well as perform the first soil sampling operation.
In early April 2019, the device dropped an SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor) penetrator on the asteroid, consisting of a copper projectile and an explosive charge, which led to the creation of an artificial impact crater. The moment SCI separated from the station, its descent and the release of matter from the Ryugu hit the images of the onboard and descent cameras, and soon the station was able to see the very area where the crater was formed. After the crater was created, the station made several approaches to the asteroid, during which it took photographs of the area and dropped a target designator near the crater.
A new soil sampling operation began on July 9, 2019. It is extremely interesting both from a scientific point of view and from an engineering point of view, since scientists will be able to obtain a soil sample from the Ryugu subsurface soil layer, which has not been strongly influenced by solar radiation and cosmic rays. Further analysis of two soil samples taken from different locations will provide a more complete picture of the asteroid's composition. However, the operation was considered quite dangerous, since there are many boulders in the landing area, and the amount of light received by the onboard cameras decreased due to the deposition of dust on them as a result of the first soil sampling. As a result, the approval of the operation took significantly longer than previously thought.
Scheme of the second operation of soil sampling
Scheme of the second operation of soil sampling
The area C01-Cb, from which the sampling was carried out, is located about twenty meters north of the artificial crater and has a radius of about 3.5 meters. The station began its descent from a 20-kilometer working orbit on the morning of July 10, at a speed of about forty centimeters per second. At an altitude of about five kilometers, the rate of descent was reduced to ten centimeters per second. When about thirty meters remained to the surface, the device hovered over it and began to search for a reflective target designator used for orientation and determining the height using a lidar. The last hovering over the Ryugu surface occurred at an altitude of 8.5 meters, after which the station at 4:20 am Moscow time approached the asteroid surface as close as possible and fired a tantalum bullet at it, collecting the scattered dust and debris with the help of a soil intake device. Then the device began a sharp climb and began transmitting telemetry. Confirmation of the success of all operations was received at the Mission Control Center at 4:51 am.
Thanks to the station, scientists recently discovered that Ryugu was a half-hollow "heap of rubble." In addition, the asteroid is the darkest of all celestial bodies visited by spacecraft, and it may also be the remnant of a larger celestial body with a radioactive core. You can read more about this unusual mission in our material "Collect the Past Bit by Bit".
