Starship Asterisk*

MASCOT's approach to Ryugu and its path across the surface

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Six minutes of free fall, a gentle impact on the asteroid and then 11 minutes of rebounding until coming to rest. That is how, in the early hours of 3 October 2018, the journey of the MASCOT asteroid lander began on Asteroid Ryugu – a land full of wonder, mystery and challenges. Some 17 hours of scientific exploration followed this first 'stroll' on the almost 900-metre diameter asteroid. The lander was commanded and controlled from the MASCOT Control Centre at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) site in Cologne in the presence of scientific teams from Germany, France and Japan. MASCOT surpassed all expectations and performed its four experiments at several locations on the asteroid. Never before in the history of spaceflight has a Solar System body been explored in this way. It has now been possible to precisely trace MASCOT’s path on Ryugu’s surface on the basis of image data from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe and the lander’s images and data. ...

MASCOT had no propulsion system and landed in free fall. Six minutes after separating from Hayabusa2, and following the end of a ballistic trajectory, the landing module made its first contact with asteroid Ryugu. On the surface, MASCOT moved through the activation of a tungsten swing arm accelerated and decelerated by a motor. This made it possible for MASCOT to be repositioned to the 'correct' side or even perform hops across the asteroid's surface. The gravitational attraction on Ryugu is just one 66,500th of the Earth's, so the little momentum provided was enough: a technological innovation for an unusual form of mobility on an asteroid surface used for the first time in the history of space travel as part of the Hayabusa2 mission. ...

It was a day full of exciting moments and a happy team of scientists and engineers: late in the afternoon of 3 October 2018, the German-French lander MASCOT completed its historic exploration of the surface of the asteroid Ryugu at 21:04 CEST, as its battery ran out. On-asteroid operations were originally scheduled to last 16 hours after separation from the Japanese mothercraft Hayabusa2. But in the end, the battery lasted more than 17 hours. Upon landing in the early morning and subsequently relocating using the built-in swing arm, all instruments collected detailed data on the composition and nature of the asteroid. The on-board camera provided pictures of the landing, hopping manoeuvres and various locations on the surface. ...

The near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, located approximately 300 million kilometres from Earth, has a new inhabitant: On 3 October 2018, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) landed on the asteroid and began to work. The lander successfully separated from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe at 03:58 CEST. The 16 hours in which the lander will conduct measurements on the asteroid’s surface have begun for the international team of engineers and scientists. The day before, the Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa2 began its descent towards Ryugu. MASCOT was ejected at an altitude of 51 metres and descended in free fall -- slower than an earthly pedestrian -- to its destination, the asteroid. The relief about the successful separation and subsequent confirmation of the landing was clearly noticeable In the MASCOT Control Centre at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) as well as in the adjoining room: “It could not have gone better,” explained MASCOT project manager Tra-Mi Ho from the DLR Institute of Space Systems. “From the lander’s telemetry, we were able to see that it separated from the mothercraft, and made contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later.” The team is now in contact with the lander. ...

GoshOGeeOGolly wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 4:29 pm

APODFORIST wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:37 am
I don't think the quality of the photo is so bad. If you turn the picture 90 degrees to the left and cut out only the middle half, you get a good impression of the surface. The blur nicely reflects the dynamics of the robot jumping around.

By making the photo blurry, a casual observer will get the opinion that the U.S. is still far ahead of the rest of the world in science and technology. That might make the Japanese hopping mad .. but .. they'll take to their hops infused drinks and smile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humulus_japonicus wrote:

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<<Humulus japonicus, known as wild hop or Japanese hop, synonym H. scandens, is an ornamental plant in the Cannabaceae family. Originally found in temperate parts of Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Russia) and the tropical environment of Vietnam, it was imported to North America in the 1800s for use in an Asian tonic and as an ornamental plant. Since its arrival in North America, it has spread widely. It can be found throughout the Northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. It is considered an invasive species in North America. The composition and chemistry of its oils differ from those of its relative the common hop, Humulus lupulus. As a result, the Japanese hop is not used in the production of beer.>>

APODFORIST wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:37 am I don't think the quality of the photo is so bad. If you turn the picture 90 degrees to the left and cut out only the middle half, you get a good impression of the surface.

The blur nicely reflects the dynamics of the robot jumping around.

starsurfer wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:04 pm Today's APOD reminds me of this song.
(Link to youtube of "Out of Space" by The Prodigy

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:10 pm

E Fish wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:21 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:58 am In later years, when so many people have begun questioning the Moon landing, I have come to think of the terrible quality of the transmission as one brilliant piece of evidence that the Moon landing was for real. Because if Hollywood had staged the whole thing, there is no way they would have allowed a fake Moon landing to look and sound so bad!

Ah, but Hollywood is so devious that they would have thought of that. Hollywood is all-knowing and in the pocket of the government/Free Mason/Jew/Satanic NASA program and they've thought of everything. (Except why faking the Moon landing would be so important...)

On a more serious note, I think this image is really cool. I have to admit that whenever I think of rovers on an asteroid, I get this image in my head of something like The Little Prince.

Now that I've looked at it a bit more, I like it better than I did at first. Yes, it is cool. Just looking at that tiny, tiny world of an asteroid is pretty incredible! Imagine hopping about on that asteroid, which has hardly any gravity. Don't kick off too hard, or you will be lost in space!

Ann

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:41 pm

neufer wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:04 pm
Are there any insects or other animals
[e.g., snails, turtles, hippos, elephants, "some 400 pound guy sitting on his bed in New Jersey," etc.]
that can't jump 0.75 cm into the air

Aphids? Starfish?

neufer wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:04 pm Are there any insects or other animals
[e.g., snails, turtles, hippos, elephants, "some 400 pound guy sitting on his bed in New Jersey," etc.]
that can't jump 0.75 cm into the air :?:

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:10 pm
Imagine hopping about on that asteroid, which has hardly any gravity. Don't kick off too hard, or you will be lost in space!

https://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10976/1756_read-23829/#/gallery/17357 wrote:
The Hayabusa2 mission – investigating a near-Earth asteroid

<<The low gravitational force of the asteroid, which amounts to just one 60,000th of the gravitational force on Earth, presents a challenge for the mission. This force is insufficient to 'pull' the lander out of the Hayabusa probe. As such, MASCOT will be pushed out of its holder by a spring mechanism and fall to Ryugu from a height of approximately 60 metres. If this happens too quickly, then there is a risk that MASCOT will bounce off the asteroid's surface. It is also important that the lander's 'hopping' on the asteroid from site to site is programmed from start to finish so that it does not reach escape velocity. The escape velocity from Ryugu is calculated to be 38 centimetres per second.>>

E Fish wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:21 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:58 am In later years, when so many people have begun questioning the Moon landing, I have come to think of the terrible quality of the transmission as one brilliant piece of evidence that the Moon landing was for real. Because if Hollywood had staged the whole thing, there is no way they would have allowed a fake Moon landing to look and sound so bad!

Ah, but Hollywood is so devious that they would have thought of that. Hollywood is all-knowing and in the pocket of the government/Free Mason/Jew/Satanic NASA program and they've thought of everything. (Except why faking the Moon landing would be so important...)

On a more serious note, I think this image is really cool. I have to admit that whenever I think of rovers on an asteroid, I get this image in my head of something like The Little Prince.

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:58 am In later years, when so many people have begun questioning the Moon landing, I have come to think of the terrible quality of the transmission as one brilliant piece of evidence that the Moon landing was for real. Because if Hollywood had staged the whole thing, there is no way they would have allowed a fake Moon landing to look and sound so bad!

APODFORIST wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:37 am
The blur nicely reflects the dynamics of the robot jumping around.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/1673017/quimps-plewds-and-grawlixes-the-secret-language-of-comic-strips wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<In 1980, Mort Walker published a charming book titled The Lexicon of Comicana. For example, any line used to show something moving is called a sphericasia. Shake something hard enough and these lines are called agitrons, while the lines that show which way a comic strip character is pointing are called digitrons. And when Sarge punches Beetle Bailey in the comics, the punch is made up of three distinct elements: A little dust cloud called a briffit to show where the punch started, a swalloop to show the arc of the fist as it smashes across Beetle’s jaw, and the terminating point at the end, which is a whitope. Speaking of briffits, they are most often found in the comic strips in the accompaniment of hites: horizontal lines streaking between a cartoon character and his briffit to represent speed. “The more hites, the more speed,” Walker explains. There are also uphites and downhites, which come out of a character when he is jumping or falling. >>