Watch the moment a Spacecraft Lands on Asteroid 300 Million Kilometers Away
Watch the moment a spacecraft lands on an asteroid some 300 million kilometers away. A spacecraft from Japan visited an asteroid measuring approximately one kilometer in diameter called Ryugu (officially designated 162173 Ryugu). In June 2018, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived in orbit around the asteroid in order to study it. But the mission is more than just studying an object 300 million kilometers away. Hayxabusa2 was tasked with mapping, exploring, and sampling the asteroid. In February 2019, the spacecraft briefly touched the asteroi0d surface and fired a small projectile to expose subsurface soil and debris and collect it with the spacecraft sampling horn. This object was completed, and the spacecraft returned to orbit. NEWSLETTER Never miss a news release from the Curiosmos team. Then, in July 2019, the spacecraft performed a second sampling from the asteroid’s subsurface. It fired a large copper projecting from an altitude of...