In Historic First, Scientists Have Landed Rovers On an Asteroid and They’re Transmitt

[Dowly]

Touchdown!

MASCOT lands safely on asteroid Ryugu

The near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, located approximately 300 million kilometres from Earth, has a new inhabitant: On 3 October 2018, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) landed on the asteroid and began to work. The lander successfully separated from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe at 03:58 CEST. The 16 hours in which the lander will conduct measurements on the asteroid’s surface have begun for the international team of engineers and scientists. The day before, the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 began its descent towards Ryugu. MASCOT was ejected at an altitude of 51 metres and descended in free fall – slower than an earthly pedestrian – to its destination, the asteroid. The relief about the successful separation and subsequent confirmation of the landing was clearly noticeable In the MASCOT Control Centre at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) as well as in the adjoining room: "It could not have gone better," explained MASCOT project manager Tra-Mi Ho from the DLR Institute of Space Systems. "From the lander's telemetry, we were able to see that it separated from the mothercraft, and made contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later." The team is now in contact with the lander.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Touchdown!

MASCOT lands safely on asteroid Ryugu

This is so odd. I see absolutely nothing about that on the Tagesschau website which is usually a good news source.
It really surprises me that they don't cover this at all considering how much coverage the Rosetta mission got and that even the German DLR is actually involved in this .

[Dowly]

I would imagine the lack of "advertising" from JAXA is one factor why this isn't reported more. ESA made a bunch of videos and other stuff about Rosetta which made it much more visible that Hayabusa-2 is.


EDIT: Press conference:



Photo taken by MASCOT during descent. Shadow of the rover seen in top right corner.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Doki9KVX0AIZq7x.jpg

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Or Major and Tom.

Huey and Dewey (from Silent Running, not a submarine movie).

-or-

Boaty McBoatface and Eilene.

[vienna]

Pinky & The Brain...


















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