Japan sticks the landing: Asteroid sample recovered from Hayabusa2 probe Japanese and Australian astroboffins have successfully recovered samples taken from Asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 probe. Hayabusa2 has had quite a ride and has more adventures ahead of it. The probe launched in 2014 and spent three-and-a-half years travelling to near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, which has a diameter of …
What a great story to read. Co-operation between nations. Hard science. Stuff that has not been done before, lights in the sky..
Fantastic! Bring on more of these!
I could be boring and say how the automation is delivering neat stuff to Earth based systems.. But thats not so important as the success of the mission, however wrought!
I love the fact that its going on for another 10 years too!
Well done all the folks involved.
On that continent everything is out there to get you. As one remarked the non-dangerous animals are "some of the sheep". A mutated space blob leaping out would be about par for the course.
Joking aside: They were walking through grass, which I was told by my host down under to avoid, lest I get bitten and die. Horribly. Alone. This was not as stern a talking to as the "not touching stuff under water or picking up beautiful snail shells on the beach"-talk. All with gruesome facts about venomous wildlife, the type of venoms, and how you die. Horribly. Alone. (*shudders*). Still some of the best weeks of my life!
Hey in that area you only need to worry about the Inland Taipan (worlds deadliest snake), the King Brown (untreated mortality rate of about 40%), the Western Brown ((untreated mortality rate of about 20%), and the Death Adder (untreated mortality rate of about 60%).
So nothing much to worry about...
They simply use the same tech as is involved in microwave dinners. Thats why, no matter how long you microwave them, the outside can be the temperature of a small sun, but the inside will remain resolutley frozen.
Perfect for maintaining the sample integrity of the interior...
Well, I think the same trick that keeps astronauts alive will probably work OK here. You likely can't keep it at some very low temperature, but assuming the surface of the asteroid was sometimes Sun-facing it's not been at very cold temperatures, and if the asteroid is rotating (which it likely is!) then it's also used to very large temperature swings.
So, they've retrieved a chunk of an asteroid and returned it to Earth intact. But that's not enough, oh no, they have some spare fuel left so they're planning at least another ten years of mission for the parent spacecraft. Because why not?
Everything about space exploration is wonderful (possible exception of certain annoying rich people who think its just fine to dump thousands of bright spacecraft in the sky to annoy astronomers because money).
You think that's impressive, go look up the original Hayabusa probe! Despite practically everything going wrong, they still managed to return a useful sample.
-- Voyager, 40 years out, has detected new phenomena as well: electrons accelerated to near-light-speed by solar shockwaves. https://sciencecodex.com/voyager-spacecraft-detect-new-type-solar-electron-burst-662450.
Humans may be trashing our world so thoroughly that high civilization will no longer be possible, but Voyager is bound for the stars.
I believe the origin of the term is that the area was prohibited during the Woom era. Herr Doktor Woom, pronounced 'Voom' or 'Foom' as he was, of course, German, was a now-largely-forgotten rocket scientist who was acquired by the allies at the end of the war in the usual rather murky circumstances, and despite certain unfortunate events in his recent past. Unfortunately it seems he was selected mostly on the basis of a confusion about his name: a government paper which I have seen makes it very clear that certain high-ranking ministers believed that 'Voom' was a nickname, and were very keen on the fabled 'Dr Voom' because, well, because things that go Voom was something they were rather keen on. It is not quite clear why his colleague, Dr Boom, was not also taken on.
A woomera is a specially carved stick used for spear throwing. The back end of the spear is cupped by the back end of the woomera, you hold the front end of the woomera with the spear pointing forward and passing over your hand. When you throw, the woomera acts as an extension of your arm, thus increasing the speed and force of the spear.
The Aztecs used a similar wooden device, the Romans used a leather thong for the same purpose, and modern dog-walkers use a plastic version for throwing tennis balls.
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