Rover 1A Hops on Asteroid Ryugu
Explanation:
Two small robots have begun hopping around the surface of asteroid Ryugu.
The rovers, each the size of a small
frying pan,
move around the low gravity of kilometer-sized
162173 Ryugu by hopping,
staying aloft for about 15 minutes and
typically landing again several meters away.
On Saturday, Rover 1A returned an
early picture of its
new home world, on the left,
during one of its first hops.
On Friday, lander
MINERVA-II-1
detached from its mothership
Hayabusa2,
dropped Rovers 1A and 1B, and
then landed on Ryugu.
Studying Ryugu could
tell humanity
not only about Ryugu's surface and interior,
but about what materials were available in the early
Solar System for the
development of life.
Two more hopping rovers are
planned for release, and Hayabusa2 itself is scheduled to collect a surface sample from
Ryugu and return it to
Earth for detailed analysis before 2021.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
