In Aerospace Engineering/ JAXA

Keep the Silver: Asteroid Ryugu Takes a Tantalum Bullet

This Thursday (February 21st), asteroid Ryugu will take a literal bullet in the name of science! This is part of the mechanism of how Hayabusa2 will take its sample before heading back to Earth. The bullet is designed to kick of dust on the surface of the asteroid. Trick is, when Hayabusa2 got to the Ryugu, it was not the asteroid they were expecting……

Artist interpretation of the sample acquisition sequence by JAXA

What they saw on Ryugu was not dust type regolith they were anticipating. It was a surface made of rocks! Would that bullet be able to kick up big boulders instead of dust? Well, before the sequence JAXA had to do a test back here on Earth just to see how the mechanism would fare. And what we got was a preview of the action happening on Friday. Fortunately, the bullet still works on rocks! Kicking up enough dust to make the mission a go!

Video of bullet shooting sample rocks by JAXA. The whole article is super cool so you should check that out here if you have time.

So what is in store for Thursday? The planetary society has a breakdown on the whole landing sequence but the main event takes place at 5:56pm EST (22:56 UTC) which means we receive word at 6:15pm EST (23:15 UTC). Remember, space is large and it takes a while to communicate between Earth and other celestial bodies. You can check out live coverage on JAXA’s YouTube channel beginning at 5:15pm EST (22:15 UTC).