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Hayabusa

Bringing back a sample from a celestial body in the Solar System is called "Sample Return." "HAYABUSA" is a probe to verify the practicality of acquired technology developed to archive future full-scale "sample return missions."

"HAYABUSA' was launched aboard the M-V Launch Vehicle on May 9,2003. It was accelerated by a swing-by of the Earth in May 2004 and reached its target Asteroid Itokawa on September 12,2005, after traveling about 2 billion kilometers. in September and October that year, "HAYABUSA" completed the most remote-sensing and measurement of the geometry of Itokawa and made two landings in November to collect a sample from Itakawa.

In September 2005, the explorer arrived at the asteroid Itokawa about 300 million km away from the earth. In November 2005, it successfully landed on Itokawa. In April 2007, HAYABUSA started full cruising operation to return to earth.

Hayabusa2

Asteroid Explorer “Hayabusa2” clarifies the origin and evolution of solar system as well as life matter. It will be establishing deep space exploration technology and new challenges. This asteroid probe is the sequel to the Hayabusa probe, designed for returning asteroid samples. By investigating a different type of asteroid (type C) from the Itokawa asteroid (type S) that was the target of Hayabusa, Hayabusa 2 will explore not only the origins of the planets but also the origin of the water of Earth’s oceans and the source of life.

Images from Hayabusa2 revealed many more boulders on the surface of asteroid Ryugu than were expected. Asteroid Itokawa also has a large number of boulders, but Ryugu appears to have more per unit area.

The MINERVA-II (standing for the “MIcro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid, the second generation”) are a successor to the exploration rover, MINERVA, that was installed with the first Hayabusa mission to asteroid Itokawa. The two MINERVA-II1 rovers (Rover-1A, 1B) are hexagonal in shape with a diameter of 18cm, height of 7cm and weight of about 1.1 kg each. The pair were developed at the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences.

The main feature of MINERVA-II1 is the ability for the rovers to move on the surface of Ryugu by utilizing a hopping mechanism. Within the rover is a motor that rotates and causes the rover to “hop” (jump up) during the rebound. This will allow the rovers to move across the asteroid surface and explore multiple areas. On Ryugu, MINERVA-II1 will move autonomously, determining what should be done for the exploration by itself.

Gravity on the surface of Ryugu is very weak, so a rover propelled by normal wheels or crawlers would float upwards as soon as it started to move. Therefore this hopping mechanism was adopted for moving across the surface of such small celestial bodies. The rover is expected to remain in flight for up to 15 minutes after a single hop before landing, and to move up to 15 m horizontally.

The Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on the asteroid, some 340-million kilometers from Earth, on Friday morning 22 February 2019, Japan time. Officials say the probe has likely collected rock samples as planned.

Japan's space agency JAXA said its space probe Hayabusa2 was scheduled to make one or two more landings on the asteroid Ryugu before July 2019. Officials say one attempt will be the first of its kind, involving the use of a device called an impactor to create a crater-like hole on the surface. They said they plan to have the Hayabusa2 land there and collect rock samples from the inside of the asteroid. Hayabusa2 made two successful landings on Ryugu, and appeared to have collected samples of sand. The probe started its return journey in November 2019.

Japan's space agency JAXA retrieved the capsule released from its asteroid probe Hayabusa2. Hayabusa2 released the capsule believed to contain sand samples from the remote asteroid Ryugu on 05 Deember 2020 Japan time. The 5-billion-kilometer voyage to and from Ryugu that took six years has come to an end. Hayabusa2 is now heading for another asteroid on a new mission. It is expected to arrive there in 11 years.

Hayabusa2 is already on its way to another asteroid. It's expected to arrive 11 years from now.