Japanese robots successfully land on asteroid and take surface photos

Submitted by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), rovers 1A and 1B successfully landed on asteroid Ryugo after being launched by the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft, as reported in August.

In addition to beginning to collect data on the composition of the asteroid, the robots took some photographs of the region, which were sent to Earth last Saturday (22). In addition, the agency confirmed that both are in good condition and have begun to move across the surface of the Ryugo. See the images in the gallery below.

Although the first picture is blurry (the rover was spinning as it was taken), the other two show the asteroid more clearly. It is anticipated that 1A and 1B will be accompanied by the Mascot module, to be launched by Hayabusa-2 on October 3.

Because the Ryugu asteroid is a primitive rock body, JAXA researchers believe that studying its composition can bring new information about the formation of the earth and the solar system. If the material is successfully collected, the ship should return to our planet in 2020 with this information.

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Japanese robots successfully land on asteroid and take surface photos via TecMundo