Hayabusa 2 on its way back to earth

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

That big stone on the very top looks very dangerous.
It lies right on the slope and can fall down from there.

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by kerbiloid

[cubinator]

12 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

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That big stone on the very top looks very dangerous.
It lies right on the slope and can fall down from there.

 

Let's push it off and see what happens. *discovers gravity*

[Rus-Evo]

10 hours ago, cubinator said:

Let's push it off and see what happens. *discovers gravity*

Well not much gravity especially considering the friction holding it there.

[insert_name]

they have a good 3d model of ryugu http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/20180711bje/index_e.html

also lidar and comms tests took place

http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/topics/operation_e/index.html

[Xd the great]

On 7/12/2018 at 9:30 PM, Rus-Evo said:

Well not much gravity especially considering the friction holding it there.

Where there is gravity. Escape velocity: 1cm/s.

So, not much friction.

[YNM]

Considering the army of robots that's going to invade this thing, it feels we have unfair advantage 

[Xd the great]

2 hours ago, YNM said:

Considering the army of robots that's going to invade this thing, it feels we have unfair advantage 

Lol, kerbal-ly reaction wheel driven robots.

[DAL59]

On 7/12/2018 at 11:41 PM, insert_name said:

they have a good 3d model of ryugu

Import it into ksp!

[tater]

 

[StrandedonEarth]

Big chunks floating in dust... Rocky Road ice cream, anyone?

[insert_name]

Another descent to 5km, next one will go to 1km

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/a-second-successful-medium.html

[insert_name]

1km descent complete

http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20180807e/index.html

[SuperFastJellyfish]

I pulled up the house I rent on google maps to get a sense of scale-ish.  I figured someone lazier than I might appreciate me posting a screenshot. 

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by SuperFastJellyfish

[Scotius]

That's some mighty big rocks Then there are car sized rocks. Fridge sized rocks. And so on, down to the actual dirt level. I hope those tiny cube landers will not get stuck between rocks, like poor Philae did. On this drifting pile of rubble best method of locomotion would be a gentle, slow crawl using only tips of your fingers and boots

Edited August 8, 2018 by Scotius
A typo.

[YNM]

13 hours ago, insert_name said:

 

Spoiler

 

... and here I am doubting the miniatures we're sending is enough of a threat.

GET THE CLAW !

[cubinator]

16 hours ago, insert_name said:

1km descent complete

http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/topics/20180807e/index.html

Was the ship shining a light at the asteroid to see it better, or is that lighting just an artifact of the camera optics?

[insert_name]

Landing sites selected

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/0824-hayabusa2-team-announces-landing-site.html

[KG3]

In the Ryugu facts listed in the article it says Ryugu has a mass of around 450 million tons.  What would compare to that on earth?  Hoover dam, super tanker or something?

[cubinator]

4 minutes ago, KG3 said:

In the Ryugu facts listed in the article it says Ryugu has a mass of around 450 million tons.  What would compare to that on earth?  Hoover dam, super tanker or something?

An 800 meter wide ball of rock. About 68 Hoover Dams in weight.

[Green Baron]

Very nice !

On 8/8/2018 at 2:41 PM, cubinator said:

Was the ship shining a light at the asteroid to see it better, or is that lighting just an artifact of the camera optics?

Not pretending to be right, but the shadows are a hint to an independent light source if the craft doesn't have long arm with a flashlight. It would make sense to close in in an area where there are shadows, to get a feeling of depth and structure.

The darker rim looks like typical vignetting as in any optical system. Edit: It shows so prominently because of the uniform grey tone of the picture.

6 hours ago, KG3 said:

In the Ryugu facts listed in the article it says Ryugu has a mass of around 450 million tons.  What would compare to that on earth?  Hoover dam, super tanker or something?

A hill/small mountain of ~600m height (*).

A supertanker has magnitudes less (~3-4 of them).

 

(*)Edit: i am ignoring the lower density of an asteroid compared to the more compact earthly sediments.

Edited August 25, 2018 by Green Baron

[YNM]

5 hours ago, KG3 said:

In the Ryugu facts listed in the article it says Ryugu has a mass of around 450 million tons.  What would compare to that on earth?  Hoover dam, super tanker or something?

 

32 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

A hill/small mountain of ~600m height. Ryugu is just below 1km diameter.

A supertanker has magnitudes less (~3 of them).

However, humans make 3 billion tonnes of cement each year.

Chilling to know that we're building an asteroid every 2 months !

[Scotius]

So, any guesses how much of valuable stuff could be hidden in this floating pile of rubble? Metals? Frozen gases? Water somewhere?

[YNM]

18 minutes ago, Scotius said:

So, any guesses how much of valuable stuff could be hidden in this floating pile of rubble ?

About as much as all other pile of rubble.

But we'd have to actually look to be able to know.

[MinimumSky5]

On 8/8/2018 at 2:41 PM, cubinator said:

Was the ship shining a light at the asteroid to see it better, or is that lighting just an artifact of the camera optics?

Its probably an effect called "Opposition Surge/Brightening", which is frequently observed on rough surfaces, and commonly seen around the solar system. It simply means that the area of the surface directly in front of the camera appears much brighter than the areas at a slight angle to the observer. It's not fully understood, but you see it a lot in extraterrestrial images.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_surge

[Green Baron]

The light source is not directly behind ...