“Hayabusa 2” departs from asteroid and aims to return to Earth November 13th 11:32
The Japanese spacecraft “Hayabusa 2”, which successfully landed twice on the asteroid, left the asteroid “Ryugu” by jetting its engine to return to Earth after 10 am on the 13th.
The Japanese spacecraft "Hayabusa 2" has reached the asteroid "Ryugu" over three and a half years, and has successfully completed two explorations, such as two successful landings to collect rock fragments.
JAXA = Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency sends a signal to Hayabusa2 to inject the engine that controls the attitude for the return, and safely injects after 10am on the 13th. I confirmed that I did.
In the future, Hayabusa2 will perform a pilot operation of the main engine, the ion engine, for approximately two weeks from the 20th of this month, after changing its attitude, etc. It is a plan to go to the earth.
In addition, Hayabusa2 took a picture of “Ryugu” that is moving away with the camera installed as “farewell observation”.
Hayabusa2 is planned to separate capsules that appear to contain rock fragments of Ryugu from November to December and drop them into Australian deserts. It is supposed to analyze in detail the fragments.
"Farewell observation" image release
JAXA has released an image of “Ryugu” taken at 10:15 am, 10 minutes after Hayabusa2 departed, as a “farewell observation”.
The image was taken from a distance of about 20 km, and “Ryugu” has a distinctive shape that is said to be “top-like” in the dark universe.