Science
Zipped just 800m past Asteroid Torifune as part of very extended mission
Japan’s Hayabusa2 craft has just buzzed an asteroid, successfully completing the first objective of its extended mission.Hayabusa2 launched in 2014, and four years later arrived at Asteroid Ryugu. In 2019 the craft sent a pair of landers onto Ryugu’s surface and collected samples that it dropped off in the Australian outback in late 2020.Analysis of those samples suggests Ryugu is home to amino acids, and probably came from the outer solar system before somehow settling into an elliptical orbit that crosses over the celestial paths traversed by both Earth and Mars.
After delivering its sample, the craft then headed back into deep space – with around 30 kilograms of propellant aboard. Japan’s Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) soon defined an extended mission with two objectives.
The last of those will hopefully occur in 2031 at Asteroid 1998 KY26, a tiny space rock that astroboffins think may be just 11 meters wide.JAXA ticked off the other objective on Sunday with a flyby of asteroid 98943 Torifune, a 450-meter diameter rock.
