The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 (Peregrine Falcon) which left the Earth on 2nd December 2014 will arrive in three days time nearly after six years.
It's mission was to survey a near-Earth asteroid and collect a surface sample for return to Earth in 2021. The spacecraft arrived at asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018.
Currently it's approx 1,409,900 kms away from us.
Hayabusa2 completed 2 successful touchdowns and sample collections in 2019. The second touchdown collected material excavated from an artificial crater created using explosives and a copper projectile. The spacecraft also carried 4 deployable surface landers — 3 of which have been successfully dropped on the surface — and 5 target markers containing names collected by The Planetary Society and JAXA.
Hayabusa2 spacecraft will embark on an extended mission after it drops off samples from asteroid Ryugu at Earth. This is done by ejecting a capsule containing collected samples that is expected to land in Woomera - South Australia.
Hayabusa2 will continue after the ejection of this capsule into deep space. As about half of the fuel (xenon) for the ion engine is expected to remain at this time, the explorer will continue on to a new mission – to visit a very small asteroid called 1998 KY26. At only 30m across, it was a world-first to rendezvous with this type of asteroid. The Japanese space agency JAXA has 2 possible asteroid targets in mind; both are small and have fast rotation periods.
It's mission was to survey a near-Earth asteroid and collect a surface sample for return to Earth in 2021. The spacecraft arrived at asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018.
Currently it's approx 1,409,900 kms away from us.
| Earth arrival: | R-3 days |
|---|---|
| Total distance travelled: | 5,265,008,089 km |
| Time since launch: | +2191d 00:03:26 |
| Sun to Hayabusa2: | 0.99 au |
| Velocity relative to the Sun: | 32.37 km/s |
| Radio wave round trip: | 9 sec |
Hayabusa2 completed 2 successful touchdowns and sample collections in 2019. The second touchdown collected material excavated from an artificial crater created using explosives and a copper projectile. The spacecraft also carried 4 deployable surface landers — 3 of which have been successfully dropped on the surface — and 5 target markers containing names collected by The Planetary Society and JAXA.
Hayabusa2 spacecraft will embark on an extended mission after it drops off samples from asteroid Ryugu at Earth. This is done by ejecting a capsule containing collected samples that is expected to land in Woomera - South Australia.
Hayabusa2 will continue after the ejection of this capsule into deep space. As about half of the fuel (xenon) for the ion engine is expected to remain at this time, the explorer will continue on to a new mission – to visit a very small asteroid called 1998 KY26. At only 30m across, it was a world-first to rendezvous with this type of asteroid. The Japanese space agency JAXA has 2 possible asteroid targets in mind; both are small and have fast rotation periods.
