2 Japanese Rovers Land on Target Asteroid Ryugu

September 24, 2018

Tokyo- Two small robotic explorers released from Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft have successfully touched down on asteroid Ryugu, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Saturday.

The space agency confirmed that after the landing, at least one of the two Minerva-II 1 rovers succeeded in jumping to another location on the surface of Ryugu by using an internal motor.

According to JAXA, the Minerva-II 1 is the world's first rover to have succeeded in moving on the surface of a low-gravity celestial object.

Hayabusa2 released the Minerva-II 1 rovers toward a point some 140 meters north of Ryugu's equator on Friday afternoon Japan time.

The rovers then sent data, including images, to Hayabusa2 some 20 kilometers above the surface of the asteroid. Based on the data, JAXA confirmed that the two rovers landed on Ryugu.

The cylindrical-shaped rovers were developed by JAXA and the University of Aizu in the city of Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. Each of them is 18 centimeters in diameter and 7 centimeters in height, and weighs about one kilogram.

They are designed to move on the surface of Ryugu by making repeated jumps using solar-powered motors.

In 2005, a Minerva series explorer was released from JAXA's first Hayabusa spacecraft toward an asteroid called Itokawa. But it failed to land on the asteroid due to a problem in the timing of the release.

"We're glad that the Minerva-II 1 rovers took photos as we had expected," Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, associate professor at JAXA, said.

"We could confirm the effectiveness of the rovers' mechanism of moving on a small celestial object, and now I feel that our many years of research have produced results," he added. Jiji Press