The Japanese Space Agency ( JAXA ) has revealed images from its third rover on the asteroid Ryugu as part of its Hayabusa-2 military mission .
Called MASCOT , the hop lander built by the German Aerospace Center ( DLR)touched downon the surface on October 3 . It performed three hops before dying – as planned – afterjust 17 hours .
But in that unretentive time it was able-bodied to amass data point on the surface , include contemplate the asteroid ’s magnetic field and composition , which was sent back to the Hayabusa-2 mothership . And it also supervise to snap some images on the airfoil , which have now been released .
“ I hit the bull ’s eye ! ” the MASCOT squad said in one tweet which showcased the landing situation of the rover . “ My stemma to Ryugu was rather straight , do n’t you think ? I made it to my plan landing site ' Alice ’s Wonderland ' . Not too bad for a rookie ! ”
The rover also returned persona of the asteroid ’s south rod , and numerous boulders across its surface . A later image seemingly take from the surface showed the asteroid closer - up , with rubbles and pebbles strewn across the soil .
MASCOT succeeded the twoMINERVA - II1 landers , which touched down on the airfoil on Friday , September 21 . Like those two it was designed to hop across the open , moving an arm to give it some impulse and incite it off the surface in the asteroid ’s low - gravity environment .
MASCOT had a rigid box shape , measuring about 30 centimeters ( 12 inches ) long on its longest side and librate about 10 kilogram ( 22 quid ) . But as it was powered by a non - rechargeable barrage rather than solar panels , its spirit was short - lived – although the team noted onTwitterit was “ more than ” bear .
Hayabusa-2 has one more lander that it will get off to the surface , call Rover 2 , which will be deploy in 2019 . However , a landing of the ballistic capsule itself on the surface to collect sample distribution has been delayed from by and by this year to betimes next as the team hunt for a matt location to ground .
In the meantime the space vehicle will carry on to place images and data back , include that from its feisty rover . Hayabusa-2 is schedule to recall to Earth , pass on its companions behind but bring sampling of the asteroid , in 2020 .
