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Hayabusa-2: Japan Spacecraft Touches Down on Asteroid
- csunbird 8y agoThis is a very cool thing ! I did not even know that Japan had a space program. I guess they are not advertising as much as NASA does.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoI am flabbergasted that you were not aware of JAXA. How is this possible. What are people been taught? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAXA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAXA
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoOn 9 May 2003, Hayabusa (meaning, Peregrine falcon), was launched from an M-V rocket. The goal of the mission was to collect samples from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa. The craft rendezvoused with the asteroid in September 2005. It was confirmed that the spacecraft successfully landed on the asteroid in November 2005, after some initial confusion regarding the incoming data. Hayabusa returned to Earth with samples from the asteroid on 13 June 2010.
- ygra 8y agohttps://www.xkcd.com/1053/ https://www.xkcd.com/1053/ Keep in mind that not everyone knows the same things. Why not just be happy that they learned something?
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoHmmm. Disturbing. I’m going to leave the post in place but also feel a little embarrassed.
- goto11 8y ago> How is this possible. What are people been taught? For each and every think you know, there was a time where you didn't know it.
- godzilla82 8y agoIt would be interesting, if you could give a proof by induction!
- csunbird 8y agoWell, to be honest, in my country, we were only taught about the space race to the moon between Russia and USA. I already knew other countries were launching rockets/satellites to the space but I always assumed they are not for scientific reasons.
- lordgrenville 8y agoobligatory xkcd https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- magduf 8y agoIt's just typical American ignorance about anything outside of America. American schools don't teach much about other countries, except of course what happened in WWII. Most Americans probably have no idea that Japan has a space program, or Europe (ESA), and they'd be lucky to know that China has one, and only then only because their recent far-side-of-the-Moon mission (with cool photo) has been in the news recently.
- adventured 8y agoIt's inappropriate and beneath HN standards to classify an entire country as being typically ignorant. Such a wild, broad generalization about hundreds of millions of people is impossible to support.
- magduf 8y agoIt's not a generalization about hundreds of millions of people, it's a generalization about the public education system in the US, and it's entirely valid. The US consistently ranks at the very bottom of public education rankings of all industrialized nations. This isn't inappropriate, this is supported by reams of research and explains how people in this thread can be ignorant about worldly matters.
- adventured 8y ago> It's just typical American ignorance about anything outside of America That's a generalization about hundreds of millions of people. You were very clear. When it comes to education, according to the PISA, at a 15 year old level of development, the US ranks just behind Norway and ahead of France, Sweden and Austria on science; ahead of Israel and Greece on mathematics and just behind Slovakia; ahead of Spain, Austria and Switzerland on reading and just behind the UK, France, Sweden and Denmark. On reading the US is one point behind the UK, and two points behind France; the UK is 37 points behind Singapore (the top) for comparison of the scale. The US is 20 points behind the UK in mathematics; the UK is 72 points behind Singapore and 29 points behind Switzerland. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students...
- pjc50 8y agoLots of countries have a space program, of varying levels of capability. Even Bolivia.
- magduf 8y agoBut not Australia, until only the middle of last year.
- frostburg 8y agoThe intended audience is mostly China ("look at how similiar to an ICBM this space rocket is"), but the program is scientifically very useful despite that.
- walrus01 8y agoDue to the time it takes to prepare and launch one, liquid fueled rockets have very limited strategic or tactical relevance... The US learned this with the first generation of titan ICBMs which were stored horizontally and intended to be erected+fueled on demand for launch.
- frostburg 8y agoThe Epsilon is a solid fuel rocket.
- travbrack 8y agoWas there really any question whether Japan could build an ICBM though? Russia and maybe even North Korea can make them.
- mouldysammich 8y agoWhy put Russia under the category of North Korea, are they not accomplished enough in the rocket department to be considered closer to the US?
- geomark 8y agoIsn't the US still buying rockest from Russia for critical launches? I'd say Russia might have a bit of an edge.
- adventured 8y agoThe US doesn't buy rockets from Russia, ULA uses the RD-180 engine until the new Blue Origin engine is ready. The ULA rockets are eg Atlas V (uses the RS-180) and Delta IV. The Delta IV rocket and heavy lift variation uses the RS-68 [1] engine, which is US tech. Their new Vulcan rocket will use the Blue Origin engine. SpaceX is certified for critical / national security launches and does not use Russia tech. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-68 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-68
- zkms 8y agoHave you read of Akatsuki, JAXA's Venus orbiter? It suffered a grievous propulsion failure in 2010 when a pressurant valve failed, causing its large main engine to run oxidizer-rich -- its nozzle thus shattered and fell off. It was therefore unable to enter Venus orbit in 2010. However, JAXA engineers saved the spacecraft and salvaged the mission: after five years of orbiting the sun (beyond its expected lifetime), Akatsuki's far smaller attitude-control thrusters were lit up (for 20 minutes straight!), causing it to successfully enter Venusian orbit in 2015, and it's been functioning ever since.
- yingw787 8y agoThis is really cool! Thanks for sharing!
- buboard 8y agothat is surely not common. Japan is in the ISS
- cheeko1234 8y agoI work at NASA. Trust me, it's common and sad. Barely anyone here knows the existence of this amazing feat of human engineering. I guarantee if the U.S. was involved in any way, it would be everywhere.
- lmm 8y agoMost space agencies are more prominent in their home countries than abroad. JAXA is fairly prominent in Japan.
- Gravityloss 8y agoSpace resource usage could first happen with asteroids, not on the Moon or Mars. Propellants mined from asteroids can be transferred anywhere with very low delta V and low thrust. It just takes time.
- senectus1 8y agoSpace mining to build more things in space has to be the next big focus. There is very little coherent argument for bringing space resources back down to earth.
- ekianjo 8y agohow do you build things in space? Do you plan to put factories in orbit? That sounds implausible.
- comboy 8y agoThat's how Bezos sees it, I'd say he has done some homework. Regardless, we need resources to build these factories first.
- ben_w 8y agoWhat in particular makes “factories in orbit” seem implausible? We’ve already got/had a limited one of those in the form of the 3D printer on the space station. Sure, fully automated mining, refining, QA, etc. isn’t ready yet, but it’s not implausible, and those things are all still increasingly automated even down here on Earth.
- orojackson 8y agoThat's right. Iteration is key. Start small here on Earth, then build a somewhat crude factory in space. Solve any unexpected challenges that may arise, rinse, and repeat. Eventually you'll have factory-producing factories.
- pault 8y ago
- atupis 8y agoIs space exploration / commercialization speeding up? It is now that almost every day we hear some new awesome space mission.
- stargazer-3 8y agoThere are simply more players on the field now. With ESA, JAXA, CNSA, among others, and the emerging private sector we can diversify into many exciting space projects instead of going for a single (no matter how amazing) moonshot.
- warrenmiller 8y agoIsrael too https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/22/israel-first-lunar-lander-blasts-into-space-florida-spacex-beresheet https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/22/israel-first-l...
- fnord123 8y agoIn the case of commercialization, should we worried about a failure-to-launch scenario? We supposedly only have enough fuel to get a volume of about Mount Everest into space. Given the economics of climate change being so fucked up and a tragedy of the commons, could we doom our species to spending the rest of eternity on this decaying rock if we allow market forces to shit away all the fuel required to make us interplanetary?
- haxiomic 8y agoI’m not convinced we do have a limited earth fuel budget as you say. There’s lots of options for rocket fuel and many of them are highly abundant or can be synthesised. For example, hydrogen and oxygen are the 1st and 3rd most abundant elements in the universe, so liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fuel is always going to be an option
- fnord123 8y agoThanks!
- 8y ago
- huffmsa 8y agoSome poor alien is going to come across this rock in a few million years and think it's been weaponized.
- chmod775 8y agoChances are that a highly developed alien race won't be as bloodthirsty and barbaric as the human race, so "weapon" might not be their first thought. If you're space faring on a large scale you probably had to leave conflict and infighting to lesser races, just so you could focus energies on making that leap. IMHO.
- havermeyer 8y agoIf the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy taught me anything, it's that keeping a low profile is the safest choice :) Highly recommended if you are into sci-fi.
- simion314 8y agoThis video gives a more optimistic perspective, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmCTmgavkrQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmCTmgavkrQ it challenges with good arguments the axioms in The Dark Forest.
- TremendousJudge 8y agoI think all of the points that the video makes are more or less addressed in the books. Don't want to spoil too much, but and important part of the argument _for_ complete genocide of everybody you meet is that (the book argues) any other more primitive civilization can, at any moment, go through a sudden technological explosion and leapfrog yours. It's imperative to eliminate them. The whole reasoning is based on the assumption that this can happen (not saying that it's a realistic assumption). The video doesn't mention this at all, and most of its arguments are rebutted by this assumption.
- 8y ago
- sohooo 8y agoIf you haven't already, take a look at their awesome dashboard http://haya2now.jp/en.html http://haya2now.jp/en.html linked a couple of months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18046274 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18046274
- hypertexthero 8y agoBrings to mind the user interface for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
- throwmeback 8y agoYeah, it's kinda nostalgic in that it reminds me of those hacker-ish designs of late '90-'00s. Cohesive, readable, not too much whitespace.
- pault 8y agoWow, I looked at it and was just about to come back here and bash non-functional science fiction design, but it's actually completely usable and every element is displaying relevant data.
- dhimes 8y agoI have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when the controls wouldn't let me change them :)
- wlesieutre 8y agoIf you want to poke buttons on a blue and black spaceship control panel, the Mustang in Star Citizen might be fun: https://youtu.be/vNfw7qW7ZQI?t=146 https://youtu.be/vNfw7qW7ZQI?t=146 I suspect the design is inspired by the 2014 mockups for SpaceX's Dragon capsule control panel: http://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Dragon-V2-Interior.jpg http://www.americaspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Drago... Cool looking, but I hope the real capsule's UI looks absolutely nothing like that, judging from the stories I've heard of the Model 3's touchscreen locking up and needing to reboot mid-drive fairly frequently. Not everything ought to be a touchscreen.
- tempodox 8y agoWhat an interesting project. Congrats to the team for what they've accomplished so far.
- bsenftner 8y agoWhy does space advancements made by non-US agencies only receive after-the-fact notice in the US media? I would like to know about these before, and in much more detail!
- maxxxxx 8y agoI think they have to be more proactive in engaging journalists. NASA is really good at doing this. And in general US media is very centered on the US. The outside world doesn’t exist much to them if there is no connection to the US.
- zepearl 8y agojust fyi: >>Due to its high density, shaped charge and explosively formed penetrator liners have been constructed from tantalum. Tantalum greatly increases the armor penetration capabilities of a shaped charge due to its high density and high melting point. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalum )
- uprasad 8y agoCouldn't find this in the article: How is it expected to reach the Earth in 2020 when it took 3.5 years to get to the asteroid? Will it begin its return when the asteroid is closer to the Earth?
- canadaj 8y agoI couldn't either, but on the Wikipedia page[1] for Hayabusa-2, there is a gif of the flight path. Maybe it took 3.5 years to achieve proper alignment/speed to land on the asteroid, but due to the larger size of earth and the position of Hayabusa-2 when it begins its return, it will be much more straightforward? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2
- wongarsu 8y agoGetting into an orbit next to some other small object is kind of hard. In the GIF you can see Hayabusa-2 making multiple orbits below the asteroid's orbit to catch up (lower orbits are faster) before it raises its orbit to the height of the asteroid. Once it reached the asteroid it had to do another correction to the orbit to make sure they stay together. In comparison, meeting something massive like a planet is very single: go into any orbit that nearly hits the planet, and when you are there slow down enough to let charit gravity pull you into an orbit around that planet. tl;dr: more gravity makes rondevous easier and quicker
- zamadatix 8y agoThe craft uses ion engines for propulsion. Extremely efficient but also extremely week. As a result it took a long time for the craft to match it's orbit. Had it not done this it would have either flown by or smashed into the asteroid at extraordinary speed. To return samples to Earth it does not need to match it's orbit since the atmosphere provides a convenient way to slow the samples without powerful engines and large amounts of fuel.
- rkagerer 8y agoGotta love them Japanese... Hey let's go visit an asteroid. Might as well stick a rover on it. Why send one rover when you can send four! Hey guys, let's bring back a chunk of it. You know what'd be great? Explosives! Let's blow off a deeper chunk and bring that back too. So many moving parts to this mission.