HAYABUSA2’S MASCOT LANDS ON ASTEROID RYUGU, Oct 2-3, 2018, Ryugu

Update, October 2:  A detailed timeline for Hayabusa2’s maneuvers during MASCOT deployment is now available.

JAXA has a website with “real time delivery” of navigation images from MASCOT.

Updated October 1 with more details and a link to the webcast.

JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is designed to return samples of the asteroid Ryugu to Earth.  Among its instruments and landers is one developed by the German and French space agencies, DLR and CNES, called MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout).

MASCOT will separate from Hayabusa2 on October 2, 2018 at 9:58:15 pm Eastern Daylight Time (October 3, 03:58:15 Central European Summer Time), which will be 60 meters above the surface of Ryugu, and free fall to the surface where it is expected to bounce several times before settling to a particular spot.  It has a swing arm that will allow it to change positions to ensure the instruments can operate properly.  The lander’s battery allows just 16 hours of operation.

DLR will provide a webcast.

More about MASCOT is on the DLR website:  [https://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151_read-30050/#/gallery/31162]

Two tiny Japanese rovers, 1.1 kilograms each, landed in September 2018 and another will land in 2019.  MASCOT is much larger by comparison, 9.6 kilograms, though still small.  Ryugu itself is only 1 kilometer in diameter.

The samples of the asteroid will be obtained with a device on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft itself.  Three attempts are planned, the first in late October 2018. The other two are in 2019.