OK, so Hayabusa2 powers between asteroids using ion engines (a JAXA speciality), but the Martian Moons eXploration (#MMX) mission is going to be using more traditional chemical propulsion 🛰️. In our #MMXTeamQQ, Imade Takane highlights why we made that choice.
The English press release with the first images of asteroid Torifune captured by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft is now live!
(I translated, the ISAS PR lead checked it while practically running from the press conference, and someone at JAXA HQ stayed late enough to upload 😆 HIGH-FIVES ALL AROUND!)
Assuming I am understanding Yoshikawa Makoto correctly, I think the model in his hand was our best guess of the shape of Torifune based on light curve data from Earth. It demonstrates how much information even a rapid flyby can provide on the nature of an asteroid.
The Hayabusa2 flyby of Torifune is an example of a "fast reconnaissance concept" where close by spacecraft designed for completely different missions might be swiftly conscripted to check out an asteroid that is on a collision course for the Earth. Turns out... that can work out quite well 😂
HELL YEAH! Torifune is another Itokawa; a contact binary where two asteroids collided gently enough to merge. In the case of Itokawa, the two parts were likely fragments of the same parent asteroid that fragmented during a catastrophic collision, and then gentle bounced back together.
The presentation will be in Japanese, but there's a JAXA press conference at 16:00 JST (~30 minutes) on the flyby of Torifune by Hayabusa2.
SHOW US A SPACE ROCK! And let's hug a 12 year old spacecraft that just pulled off a tight flyby it was never designed to do. Maybe we can save the world 🛰️👀🪨.
Cat cugs! (Shortly followed by cat wrestles 😼)
Mimasu Yuya looks like he may need to sleep until we reach 1998 KY26 in 2031.
If we make it (and will really stretch an old spacecraft), the second target for the Hayabusa2♯ Extended Mission is a rendezvous with a small, rapidly spinning asteroid; a type never previously visited.
The NEC jacket is from the manufacturer of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. They should be feeling pretty proud. While there has been significant deterioration, we just achieved a flyby with a nearly 12 year old spacecraft designed for a six year mission!
Hayabusa2 has performed the Torifune flyby, and on July 5 at 18:35 JST, ground control confirmed that the spacecraft is operating normally.
The team just ended the live stream saying 'FLY BYE BYE!".
These people are geeks.
And they're my people.
In the centre here is the JAXA ISAS Director General Fujimoto Masaki, clearly congratulating the team. In front of him in a white jacket is Tsuda Yuichi, former Hayabusa2 Project Manager and now Deputy Director General of JAXA ISAS.
At the front in the bright blue jacket—beaming like a lantern—is Mimasu Yuya, team leader for the Hayabusa2♯ Extended Mission. He's holding a Japanese Daruma doll. One eye is painted when you make a wish, and the second is coloured when that wish comes true. I think this doll is about to get 2 eyes!
And that's a wrap! Unlike the NASA DART mission, Hayabusa2 was never designed for flyby (or impact) observations, so I think we now have to wait until the spacecraft can be rotated to allow the high gain antenna to transmit images to the Earth. My guess is we might see something tomorrow... 🤞
NOBODY BREATH!
13 minutes!! (Now about 11..!!!). Less than 4000 km to go.
At 17:37 JST on July 5, ground control confirmed that the onboard trajectory guidance had commenced. The spacecraft condition is normal.
On the 5th July 1948, the NHS was founded in the UK.
Snap from the Hayabusa2# control room in the live stream! I’m liking the new Torifune flyby mission jackets 🛰️👀🪨.
For the extended mission, the team changed to place more junior members in lead positions. I heard it was their navigation ingenuity that is allowing such a close flyby to Torifune to be attempted.
My documents are in an (almost) appropriate file!
Hit by a massive solar flare, the first Hayabusa never had a chance for an extended mission. The spacecraft was so damaged when it returned to Earth that the team could only rotate its cameras to see home before it burned up in our atmosphere.
