Bouncing robots land on asteroid 180m miles away amid mission to fetch sample for Earth

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has landed a pair of tiny drum-like hopping robots on the surface of asteroid Ryugu. The cylindrical bots are about 18cm wide and 7cm tall (7 x 2.8in), and were traveling onboard the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which left Earth in December 2014. When the probe reached the right spot …

[Pen-y-gors]

Wow!

Seriously impressive engineering. How come there is less coverage of this than similar (but less complicated) European and USian projects?

[tiggity]

Re: Wow!

It had quite a big feature on a recent "Sky at Night" (UK astronomy TV prog)

[ColonelDare]

I didn't realise the time....

Honest, I just dropped in the pub and ended up chatting for a bit, then this girl gave me a take-away box and then came straight home....

Does that work?

[0laf]

Top boffinry by the Japanese contingent.

I hope El Reg will keep us all up to date with this. It's interesting stuff

[Zebo-the-Fat]

Well done

Very very nice, well done to everyone involved, can't wait to see the pictures.

[ashdav]

Huey and Dewey ?

[VinceH]

Did they know in advance there was a crashed Tie Fighter on the asteroid?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the Canadians had got to it first.

[Andy The Hat]

Need help

How does one pronounce "MINERVA-II1"?

Minerva-eye-eye-one perhaps? Minerva-eyeee-one? Minerva-dash-eye-eye-one? Minerva-el-el-one? Minerva-one-one-one? Or even Minerva-two-one? Very confusing nomenclature ...

[phuzz]

Re: Need help

In my head I was pronouncing it as Minerva two one.

[Winkypop]

Easy to do

Just butter one side of the lander, guaranteed to land that side down and stick.

[fedoraman]

Re: Easy to do

Didn't Magnus Pyke(1) conduct a series of experiments on this?

I recall his book, entitled "Butter side up!"

(1) A UK Scientist, was a great science TV personality in the 70s, appeared on Tomorrow's World along with James Burke and Raymond Baxter.

[Garry Perez]

Re: Easy to do

Those three presenters/scientists were a real inspiration (to me at least)

[ricardian]

Re: Easy to do

A review of 50 years of "Tomorrow's World" - on BBC Radio 4 Extra this morning (Saturday)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060qbwm

[Bitbeisser]

Re: Easy to do

"Just butter one side of the lander, guaranteed to land that side down and stick."

You should patent that trick and sell it to NASA! ;-)

[Stoneshop]

a pair of tiny drum-like hopping robots

Hopping? Should have been called 'rabbit' in Japanese, or maybe Miffy (1, 2 and 3).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: a pair of tiny drum-like hopping robots

I’d like to think the inspiration was Lumpers. From Harry Harrison’s Wheelworld.

[Stratman]

I bet there's some interesting physics around the firing of a bullet into the surface, starting with Newton 3

[Neil Barnes]

A pair of tiny hopping vampires...

would have been more fun, and probably culturally correct, but nonetheless the traditional reward is indicated.

[Not also known as SC]

Pity it was Posted on Twitter

For a moment I actually thought that I'd consider joining Twitter so I can find out about these sorts of things first hand, so I followed this link

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) September 21, 2018

【MINERVA-Ⅱ1】

Heeeeeeere weeeeee cooooome!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Ppcjr40SgG

Although the top photo is amazing I couldn't help wondering about the other images in the post. Am I just a miserable git?

[John Gamble]

Re: Pity it was Posted on Twitter

"Am I just a miserable git?"

Yeah, a little.

Twitter can be awful if you let anyone follow you. Always assume the worst, and block immediately. Your experience becomes much more pleasurable then.

[Scott Broukell]

No, no, no, no, no

See, what you've got there right, are a load of replacement washing machine parts, only they've bloomin' gone and delivered the things to the wrong asteroid. Bloody typical. These were obvously destined for fixing the Rosetta probe!

[Mark 85]

Re: No, no, no, no, no

So Amazon blew the delivery address on the order?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: No, no, no, no, no

"See, what you've got there right, are a load of replacement washing machine parts, only they've bloomin' gone and delivered the things to the wrong asteroid. "

Zanussi?

[spold]

Bouncers

Krikkit! Krikkit!

[Roger Kynaston]

Re: Bouncers

You had better not hope that. They will evolve into a charming whimsical bunch of raving psychopaths who will seek to wipe out all life in the universe as it doesn't fit in their view.

Beer (best Sapporo) for the boffins though.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

A Space Hopping journey close to home...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/14/i-crossed-alps-on-a-space-hopper-experience

[Jay Lenovo]

Alien Cookout

Ryugu looks like an old charcoal briquette from the solar system's first barbecue