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Asteroid capsule located in Australian desert
- kristianp 6y agoHow long ago were these samples collected? Surely not the sample collection that happened only a few weeks ago?
- khuey 6y agoJune 2018. You may be thinking of the (Chinese) mission to return some moon rocks that's still ongoing.
- wlesieutre 6y agoProbably thinking of this one https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pdabbadabba 6y agoIt looks like the sample collection finished and Hayabusa2 started its journey back to earth in mid November 2019. https://www.space.com/hayabusa2-spacecraft-leaves-asteroid-ryugu.html https://www.space.com/hayabusa2-spacecraft-leaves-asteroid-r... Edit: I think the differing answers reflect different events. Hayabusa2 arrived at the asteroid in June 2018 and departed in November 2019.
- hughes 6y agoYou may be thinking of OSIRIS-REx, the similar NASA mission which collected its samples a few weeks ago. That's still on its way home.
- m4rtink 6y agoIt's really nice to see so many space missions going on - even at the same time! :)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- quercusa 6y agoI suspect the team responsible for the capsule heat shield will get their first good night's sleep in a while.
- m4rtink 6y agoThe people who installed the accelerometers that open the parachutes as well! (Yes, this is a reference to how the accelerometers were installed backwards on the Genesis space probe: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(spacecraft)#/media/File%3AGenesis_crash_site_scenery.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(spacecraft)#/media/... )
- wcoenen 6y agoA reference on that wikipedia article claims that the original phrasing of Murphy's law was: "Every component than can be installed backward, eventually will be." http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6301146 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6301146
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- viggity 6y agoBased on the last image it looks like the spacecraft dropped off the sample then continued back into space. Anyone know why? Headed for more collection?
- sandworm101 6y agoThat image is way way oversimplified. The spacecraft did not enter the atmosphere and head back into space. The capsule was released far away from earth, the action of releasing it placing it into a lower perigee that allowed it to be captured by the atmosphere. The rest of the spacecraft continued on the higher orbit.
- m4rtink 6y agoThe original Hayabusa 1 did enter the atmosphere - after suffering many malfunctions and other hardships it managed to deliver it's precious sample capsule back to Earth. But after all this, it had no more fuel left for an avoidance manuever like Hayabusa 2 just did. So Hayabusa 1 burned up in the atmosfere, sacrificing itself to deliver its precious asteroid sample. This has been captured in what might be the sadest spaceflight related manga I've ever seen: https://web.archive.org/web/20100615002512/http://drawr.net/show.php?id=1478887 https://web.archive.org/web/20100615002512/http://drawr.net/... Even if you can't understand the japanese text in it, I'm sure it can convey its meaning regardless. And it migh make you shed a tear or two for the brave probe that fulfilled its mission agains all odds and came back home...
- Arnavion 6y ago(Hayabusa receives the order to detach the capsule. She complies and then grimly prepares to burn up. Earth unexpectedly contacts her with one last order, to turn around and look at Earth. When she does so, Earth congratulates her for a job well done and warmly welcomes her home.)
- ojii 6y agoIt's heading out to asteroid 1998KY26 (ETA July 2031) after a flyby of asteroid 2001CC21 (ETA July 2026). It won't do any more sample collecting but take photos and other measurements.
- defrost 6y ago> Earlier on Saturday, the capsule was picked up by cameras as a dazzling fireball streaking over Australia's Coober Pedy region. Pretty much why the region was selected. it's a big empty largely uninhabited area already populated with field of view overlapping fireball tracking cameras. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Fireball_Network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Fireball_Network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Woomera_Range_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Woomera_Range_Complex
- howlgarnish 6y agoCoober Pedy ("White man's holes") is a fascinating place though, among other things it's where they filmed Mad Max 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coober_Pedy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coober_Pedy
- mkl 6y agoI think you mean Mad Max 3 (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome).
- jstanley 6y agoI wonder if there are any pictures available of the dazzling fireball? Seems odd not to include at least one.
- mikeyouse 6y agoJAXA has several good videos: http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20201206_fireball/ http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20201206_fireball/
- 8bitsrule 6y agoSome great fireball captures in this 3m video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNK6EW_v4Ag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNK6EW_v4Ag The landing-spot pentangulation was done with 5 dual-yagi stations along the perimeter of the landing zone.
- ChuckMcM 6y ago
- romanr 6y agoClickbait title. capsule landed as planned and transmitted location. There was no search to “locate” it as much as tracking it.
- detaro 6y agoGiven the official statements describe the process as "Today (12/6) at 03:07 JST, as a result of the beacon direction search, the capsule landing point has been estimated. Now, we will search by helicopter." and "Today (12/6) at 04:47 JST, as a result of the helicopter search, we found a capsule in the planned landing area!" I don't think the beacon "transmitted location" and the headline seems accurate.
- defrost 6y agoNot to mention the region of the world selected has a seventy year history of searching and mostly finding stuff that falls from the sky, it's part of the globes largest (land area wise) long range weapons testing complex dating back to post WWII British testing. In the event of unexpected beacon failures, etc. there's a pre existing network of interlinked upward facing cameras and tracking software designed to assist finding rockets, meteorites, or plummeting blue whales.
- Maxious 6y agoYou can see the helicopter search path on flightradar24 https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/vh-syj/#263ad0f9 https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/vh-syj/#263ad0f9
- dmurray 6y ago> I don't think the beacon "transmitted location" and the headline seems accurate. From TFA: > The capsule then began transmitting a beacon with information about its position. It reads to me like it absolutely was transmitting its location (why wouldn't it? I have a GPS receiver in my watch with 1-metre accuracy). It just took an hour or two to retrieve it because they waited until it was light.
- 6y ago
- howlgarnish 6y agoWe still don't know how much if any rocks it contains though. Fingers crossed!
- ISL 6y agoHumans are so very cool.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y agoIs there any risk of contaminating Earth with something “not good” that normally would burn up when it entered our atmosphere
- barkingcat 6y agoie some remnants of the venom symbiote
- jgbmlg 6y agoDoes it seem like the first reel of a disaster movie?
- ISL 6y agoSee: Andromeda Strain.
- Arnavion 6y agoThe amount of space rock that naturally falls onto the Earth and reaches the ground is measured in tons per day.
- EE84M3i 6y agoReally? That's just the ground? Is it mostly a few bigger ones? I guess 1 ton of rock isn't that much, but this is still a pretty surprising fact.
- Arnavion 6y agoJust to be clear, I don't mean "reaches the ground as opposed to falling in the oceans", I mean "reaches the ground as opposed to burning up in the atmosphere". If we include the space rock that burns up in the atmosphere that amount is measured in the hundreds or thousands of tons per day. There's a lot of rock in space, and the Earth is a big target. Tons per day is not a lot when compared to the surface area available for it to land on.
- 6y ago
- supernova87a 6y agoI love how the guy is wearing white gloves, as they of course do in Japan...
- DarthGhandi 6y agoTerrestrial contamination in this instance is a serious scientific concern.
- SerLava 6y agoIs that thing explosive or something?
- shoghicp 6y agoAccording to previous Hayabusa mission, the parachute pyrotechnics need to be confirmed safe
- ffghhhg 6y agoI find it pleasantly surprising that an achievement by a non white space agency is getting attention on hn. Usually the media and this forum seems to have a blind spot for asian achievements. China just broadcasted moon videos yet this forum is staying quiet.
- tetris11 6y agoJapan are pro-US and are generally not a threat to us
- ffghhhg 6y agoVery interesting. So if China is a threat does that mean their achievements are invalid? If anything we should shove them in everyone’s faces to ring the alarm bells about the west losing its lead. But even if Japan is a friend, most of its achievements go unnoticed. Truly a sad state of affairs for science and space exploration.
- dmos62 6y agoIf by us, you mean U.S., just calling China a threat is such a huge oversimplification that I'd compare it to putting a pillow in your face and repeating "we are still the best" to block out all sounds. Changes are coming, sure, but it will be an involved, very interesting, and hard to predict process. Those are reasons to keep your ear to the ground and pay _more_ attention to what's happening. By the way, designating sides, enemies, threats is a slippery slope to blinding doctrines. Just keep your head cool and look at incentives.
- Throwaway1771 6y ago> non white Wow.
- tasubotadas 6y agoThat's pretty racist.
- ffghhhg 6y ago
- dmos62 6y agoI find it fascinating that I can be sitting here doing my thing, while there's people somewhere else on the globe that are actively exploring extraterrestrial objects and even bringing stuff back to Earth. The contrast between those things, for me, is mesmerizing.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y agoIs this the first human-retrieved material that's not from the Moon? I get that space rock falls out of the sky all the time, but is this the first time humans have gone and fetched some?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- walkingolof 6y agoNo, the Stardust mission collected interstellar dust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_(spacecraft)
- Sharlin 6y agoBesides Genesis [1] and Stardust [2], Hayabusa2's predecessor [1] successfully brought back some micrograms of material from asteroid 25143 Itokawa. This was much less than the original goal, but the mission was plagued by technical problems and sheer bad luck, so bringing back anything at all was still a major achievement. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(spacecraft) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_(spacecraft) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa
- jeffrallen 6y agoAnything worth doing by Japanese technicians is worth doing in white gloves.
- jvandonsel 6y agoThe technician in the photo looks like he's wearing bomb disposal gear. What's the danger here?
- ColinWright 6y agoContaminating the sample.
- IAmGraydon 6y ago>We think Ryugu is made up of super-ancient rocks that will tell us how the Solar System formed A strange comment. I believe it has already been determined that Ryugu is a very young asteroid at only 8.9 million years.