Japan rewrote the history of space exploration. The Japanese unmanned probe Hayabusa2 arrived at Earth by collecting soil from an asteroid 300 million kilometers from Earth.
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Research and Development Organization) announced on the 6th that a capsule containing soil samples of the asteroid'Ryugu' had landed in the Umera desert in southern Australia. It has been 6 years since Hayabusa 2 left Earth.
During the departure to the asteroid Ryugu (3 and a half years), specimen collection (1 year and a half), and return (1 year), the journey was successfully completed about 5.2 billion kilometers.
Hayabusa 2 separated the capsule in outer space about 220,000 km from Earth at 2:30 pm the previous day. After several orbit adjustments, the capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere at 12 km/s at 2:28 am on the 6th. The parachute was then opened at an altitude of 11 km and landed at the landing point. As the capsule entered the atmosphere, it generated about 3000 degrees of frictional heat, shining like a meteor. JAXA discovered the capsule at 4:47 a.m. and retrieved the 40 cm-diameter capsule at 7:30 a.m. using antennas and sea radar.
In the field of asteroid exploration, Japan is ahead of the United States, the powerhouse in space. Japan sent Hayabusa 1 to the asteroid Itokawa in 2003 and returned with the world's first asteroid specimen in 2010. At the time, the Itokawa asteroid sample was in trace amounts of about 1 mg, but this time JAXA estimates that the sample brought by Hayabusa2 is about 0.1 g.
Hayabusa 2 was launched on the H2A space rocket co-made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in December 2014, the year after the first return. Hayabusa 2 arrived at the orbit of Ryugu and collected soil in February of last year, and in April, it fired a metal bullet and pumped the material under the ground. In July, it went down to the surface again and collected rocks. Hayabusa 2 is the first in the world to collect an asteroid subterranean specimen.
Scientists have analyzed that the asteroid Ryugu is a carbonaceous asteroid that looks dark due to its high carbon content. It is expected that the initial material of the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago will remain in that state, and it is expected that the Ryugu sample material will provide clues to the origin of life on Earth.
After dropping the capsule to Earth, Hayabusa 2 went back to space to perform a new mission. Hayabusa 2's next destination is the asteroid '1998KY26'. JAXA expects Hayabusa 2 to arrive on the asteroid in July 2031.
Meanwhile, the NASA probe, Osiris-Rex, photographed the surface of the asteroid Benu and collected soil samples in October. In addition, earlier this month, China's unmanned probe'Changeo 5'collected lunar soil samples. To secure space sovereignty, the United States, China, and Japan are putting their lives and deaths on technology development.
