22.02.2019

Thank you for your support!

The Hayabusa2 Project has received messages of support from so many people. The encouragement and enthusiasm from you all for the mission has made the entire project team fired up and enthusiastic!

Here, we will introduce a few of the items that have been sent to us, which does not include all the amazing messages we have also received as letters, tweets and in person.

Picture 1: Support messages collect by Taisho Pharmaceuticals at the JAXA Sagamihara Campus Open House (July 27, 2018),. Mr Akiyama of Tashio Pharmaceuticals is on the right, while our Project Manager, Dr. Tsuda, is standing on the left. We received this on September 18, 2018 and messages from you all are written on each of the labels. (Photo credit: JAXA).

• Picture 2: Support messages on the team gathered at a joint event between Sagamihara City and Taisho Pharmaceuticals at Ario Hashimoto on December 8 - 9, 2018. Ms Suzuki of Sagamihara City is standing on the left our Project Manager, Dr. Tsuda, is on the right. The Sagamihara City mascot, “Sagamin” also came! We received this message board on February 13. (Photo credit: JAXA)

• Picture 3: Messages of support gathered from the Planetary Society of Japan, Mainichi Newspaper and Taisho Pharmaceuticals. Mr Imoto from the Planetary Society of Japan is seated on the left, while our Project Manager, Dr. Tsuda, is on the right. We received this message board on February 14. (Photo credit: JAXA)

• Picture 4: The originals of the messages that are displayed in Picture 3. Mr Hoshino of Taisho Pharmaceuticals is on the left, Mr Inomoto of the Planetary Society of Japan is in the middle and our Mission Manager, Dr. Yoshikawa, is on the right. We also received this on February 14. (Photo credit: JAXA)

On the book of original messages shown in the last picture (4), it reads “Please open this when times are hard or when you reach a plateau”. Some people --including the Project Manager, Tsuda and Mission Manager, Yoshikawa-- have already opened this and soothed themselves by reading the messages from everyone.

Thank you very much for sending us such warm and powerful messages of support.

Hayabusa2 project
2019.02.20 (Translated 2019.02.22)

Quelle: JAXA

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Update: 23.02.2019

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Quelle: JAXA

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Japanese spacecraft touches down on asteroid to get samples

A Japanese spacecraft has touched down on a distant asteroid on a mission to collect material that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system

A Japanese spacecraft touched down on a distant asteroid Friday on a mission to collect material that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth.

Workers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency control center applauded Friday as a signal sent from space indicated the Hayabusa2 spacecraft had touched down.

During the touchdown, Hayabusa2 is programmed to extend a pipe and shoot a pinball-like object into the asteroid to blow up material from beneath the surface. If that succeeds, the craft would then collect samples to eventually be sent back to Earth. Three such touchdowns are planned.

Japanese Education Minister Masahiko Shibayama said the space agency had concluded from its data after the first touchdown that the steps to collect samples were performed successfully.

JAXA, as the Japanese space agency is known, has likened the touchdown attempts to trying to land on a baseball mound from the spacecraft's operating location of 20 kilometers (12 miles) above the asteroid.

The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 900 meters (3,000 feet) in diameter and 280 million kilometers (170 million miles) from Earth.

Quelle: abcNews

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The Hayabusa 2 space probe after landing on the Ryugu asteroid, in this handout image released by Japan’s space agency. The picture was taken by its ONC-W1 camera. Photograph: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

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