Hayabusa 2 probe brings back samples from Ryugu asteroid!
Hi, beautiful people. We want to play a game.
You have a gun. You can do whatever you want with it,
but you have to use it in a way that could bring knowledge to humanity.
And no, you can't fire your exes. You can't use it while playing Softair.
You can't hurt anyone with that. Think about it: what would you do?
How would you use it?
Well, some Japanese astronomers and engineers found a beautiful solution to this game.
That's how Hayabusa 2 mission worked: the main objective of the mission was to collect
samples of the asteroid's surface to be brought back to Earth for analysis in the laboratory.
Once it reached the surface of the asteroid, a small tantalum projectile with a mass of 5 grams
was fired at a speed of about 300 meters per second. The debris cloud generated in this way hit
a collection tube which conveyed the sample into a chamber with a volume of 25 cubic centimetres.
If you think this is amazing, you should probably watch this video 'til the end.
Follow me on this journey to get to know more about JAXA's Hayabusa mission:
we will take you on the Ryugu asteroid to fire a projectile on it,
retrieve samples and then go back to Earth. We get dressed, we kill him and be right back.
2014. Coldplay was publishing “A sky full of stars”,
Sia came out with “Chandelier”; it was also the year of the film “Imitation Game”.
That's when Hayabusa 2, a JAXA mission, left for space with the
aim to collect samples of an asteroid's surface. When the probe left planet Earth, it spent a few
years using its ion engine which doesn't have a lot of power, but is extremely efficient in terms
of fuel, to try to catch up with the asteroid known as “Ryugu”, and what's really incredible
is that for this part of the mission the probe only used up about to 30 kg its fuel xenon.
That's how efficient these ion engines were. Unlike previous missions and also like a
mission from NASA, that's also trying to capture materials from an asteroid,
this mission had very interesting parameters. First of all, it was trying to capture these
samples from the surface, but also use these very unusual probes - or we guess you can
call them “rovers” - to try to further explore the surface of this asteroid,
using a very unusual mobility mechanism to roll around the asteroid, using its cameras
to try to study the surface here as well. In fact, the spacecraft entered orbit around
the asteroid and remained there for about a year and a half or so.
But it was also trying to capture materials from within the asteroid.
Why is it interesting to study the interior of an asteroid?
It's because essentially it allows us to get a sample that's been completely
untouched by the solar radiation, for example, for billions of years.
In other words, the main purpose of this mission was to get this very pristine
completely untrained material that would be perfect for analyzing the early solar system.
But how can you possibly remove the surface of an asteroid and try to reach within it?
Well. You could try to dig through it.
And here's where problems start to show up. In fact, the gravity of the asteroid is
pretty low, and that's why this is actually a very challenging task.
But Hayabusa 2 decided not to dig: the probe contained an
impactor (basically a bomb) on the inside. This small carry-on impactor would essentially
separate from the probe, and while the probe is waiting on the other side,
it would then accelerate smacking into the asteroid, creating a miniature crater.
This crater was actually roughly around 10 meters in diameter and ended up exposing the surface,
allowing the probe to capture the material from the inside.
In other words, you bomb the asteroid, you create a crater large enough to allow the emission to
capture the insides, and at the same time, you use an interesting gun-like apparatus
to shoot at the asteroid, dislodging the material in order for it to be captured.
The original Hayabusa 2 plan was to try to collect three different samples,
but only two different samples were collected: the first sample being from the top from the
surface of the asteroid and the second sample being from within the asteroid.
What's really unfortunate is that not a lot of material was collected by the probe.
Scientists believe that it was only able to capture a few grams of material.
This will be divided amongst various teams around the planet. Each of the teams is only going to get
something equivalent to a tiny speck possibly size of a snowflake, which actually is really
interesting because a lot of the teams that were applying to receive these samples had to
prove to JAXA (the Japanese agency) that they actually have enough experience and
enough knowledge dealing with such tiny samples in order for them not to be wasted.
Anyway, another challenge was to obviously try to somehow return them to planet Earth,
without destroying the samples in the process, which actually has happened in the past.
In fact, if we go back to 2004: “Hey Ya” by OutKast, “Just lose it” by Eminem and
“Spider-Man 2” were just released, and the Genesis probe by NASA, crashed in the Utah Desert.
So how did they do? Around 10 years ago
they collaborated with Australian space agency and asked them to use the so-called “Woomera”
test range located in Australia that, as you can imagine, requires special permission to be used.
And because no one is allowed in this particular area, it's a perfect
location to try to retrieve a sample from a potentially dangerous mission coming from space,
but because the Japanese agency wanted to continue using the probe
for other asteroids they had to separate the sample retrieval from the actual probe itself.
At a distance of about 220 000 kilometres away from planet Earth,
the capsule would separate from the main probe, with the main probe changing its trajectory so
that it can actually pass within about 200 kilometres of planet Earth at a far enough
distance where the atmosphere would not change its trajectory by a lot.
And to change this trajectory at a far enough distance to planet earth,
the probe just had to change its speed by about 20 centimetres per second.
It basically used almost no fuel whatsoever and so, while the capsule was
being returned to planet Earth, the probe continued on its way to the next object.
The next part here is of course retrieving these samples.
How did it go?
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The capsule decelerated from around 11 kilometres per second down to only a few hundred meters per
second, so basically, all of this only took approximately two or three seconds.
This is extremely extremely fast. The capsule was quite small, only about 40 cm
in diameter. A heat shield protected the capsule during its fiery plunge through our atmosphere.
When the capsule reached an altitude of about six miles above the ground,
a parachute opened to allow for a soft landing. The capsule had to be retrieved, so the scientists
looking for this capsule used the combination of radar along with the radio antenna and a
custom-made drone, in order to try to locate the capsule and retrieve it as soon as possible.
This didn't take long, especially because the drone helped to discover it pretty quickly
and within only a few hours we had retrieved the capsule.
By the way, pretty much of protection was needed, because the capsule was potentially radioactive.
We suggest you take a look at the live-streamed video
of the retrieving process because it's pretty amazing.
Anyway, the capsule was delivered to Japan, but to be more specific
it was delivered to a place known as “extraterrestrial sample curation centre”.
This facility was built specifically for the previous retrieval mission,
and today it's the most sophisticated biohazard proof or actually biohazard level 3 facility,
that essentially is the world's most complex sample processing facility that prevents any
kind of contamination from within or from without.
So, if by accident one of the asteroid samples contain some sort of a deadly virus it's not going
to spread outside of the lab and vice versa. These samples collected and stored in this
facility will be safe from bacteria and viruses from the outside, but what's more interesting is
that even NASA is going to be using this facility when the samples from asteroid
“Bennu” will return to planet Earth as well. This means that Japan has become the leader
in sample retrieval and of course sample storage and sampler distribution as well.
Is that all? Of course not.
For the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft, it’s not the end of the mission.
After dropping the capsule, it will head to another distant small asteroid called 1998KY26,
with the journey slated to take 10 years. By the way, a lot of more exciting discoveries
are actually going to obviously come from studying these samples, and we honestly can't wait for the
first study to come out discovering what it is that these asteroids are made from
and what unusual secrets we discover inside the beautiful asteroid Ryugu.
Before ending this video, we would like to show you some Ryugu images, shot by Hayabusa 2 probe:
Ryugu is an Apollo asteroid. It was discovered in 1999.
Its orbital characteristics qualify it as an Apollo asteroid
and it is a potentially dangerous object. Between January 2013 and December 2100, the
asteroid's closest approach to Earth will occur on December 6, 2076, at a distance of 0.010460
astronomical units (or 1,564,799 kilometres). The asteroid is dedicated to the Ryūgū-jō
palace where legends tell that the dragon god of the sea from
Japanese mythology resides and where a priceless treasure would be kept.
Oh, I almost forgot.
We retrieved the samples on December 6 2020. At the time we are writing this, the top three
songs on Spotify Top Hits playlist are owned by: Prisoner, by Miley Cyrus; Mood, by 24kGoldn and
iann dior; Hawài by Maluma. What a time to be alive.
"This video ends here! Thanks for watching everyone! Have you ever heard of the Hayabusa
2 mission? Do you think we will discover something exciting about Ryugu samples? Did you enjoy this
video? Let us know in the comment below! See you next time on the channel!