Mission: Hayabusa 2 Options

[wildespace]

I am neither a chemist nor a geologist, but I think carbonates would require liquid water to form.
on the subject of the number of craters, on the latest image I can count only one bona fide crater, plus 3 or 4 suspect circular features, possibly subdued craters.

Two very strong eroded crater candidates centre and just above the equator:



(image enhanced by me to show features better)

P.S. any chance to make a 3D model based on rotation images providing a stereo view?

[Paolo]

I was thinking about these two. Plus a possible darker area near the limb at 4 o'clock.

[pandaneko]

I was watching the final approach of H2 one or two minutes before arriving at the parking position.

H2 was doing something strange as shown below just before arrival at a velocity of 4cm/s, but the velocity
was 3cm/s even after arrival.

P

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[MahFL]

I was watching the final approach of H2 one or two minutes before arriving at the parking position.

H2 was doing something strange as shown below just before arrival at a velocity of 4cm/s, but the velocity
was 3cm/s even after arrival.

P

Well it says 0.00 now.

[Roman Tkachenko]

A new image

[Explorer1]

Wow! It really does look a bit brighter at the pole. Press conference soon (stereo image here: https://brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjun18.html#29 )

[pandaneko]

Isn't the boulder shining at the top pole (apparently, south pole) a rare mineral, not the same kind making
up the rest of Ryugu?. I mean, something hard and slicky on surface, like diamond?

P

[Explorer1]

As Phil said earlier in the thread when it first became visible, it might only be reflecting more sunlight, and not actually be any different in composition from the rest of the surface. But with more pixels, it does seem like it's not the only spot that seems slightly brighter. Itokawa was a lot more uniform from what I can recall.
Might be an intriguing target for one of the landers, or maybe even the impactor....

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

Ongoing press conference in japanese on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmya363w010

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

Japanese press release is online:
http://fanfun.jaxa.jp/jaxatv/files/20180627_hayabusa2.pdf

They announced they will also release English version.

Facts sheet too:
http://fanfun.jaxa.jp/countdown/hayabusa2/...sat33_fs_22.pdf



3d pictures:
http://win98.altervista.org/hayabusa2/3d.html

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

Interesting detail on page 91 of fact sheet about next approaching phase: for whole path from 20 km to 0 km it will be used ONC-W1 camera, but from 20km to 30m there will be the contribution from LIDAR (1 single laser beam), and from 50m to 0 the contribution of LRF (4 laser beams). Last 30 meters will have also contribution from light-reflection from target-marker-balls, reflecting lite from onboard LEDs.
They will also use a 3d digital model ("Ryuguoid"?).

Further details on p.94
Align to surface linear speed at 100m.
Switch from LIDAR to LRF at 40m (previous slide shows overlapping).
Target balls released at 30m.
Switch to autonomous mode and target-markers tracking at 15 meters.
Free fall starting from 5-10 m, landing close to the ball.

After shooting SCI bullet, precise landing into the crater will be allowed by using multiple target markers.

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

Schedule:
End of July - Medium altitude observation 1 (altitude 5 km)
Late August - gravity measurement descent (altitude 1 km)
Late August - scheduled landing site
September - October - Touchdown operation slot 1
September - October - Rover Drop Operation Slot 1 (which one of 4 rovers?)


March-april 2019: shooting of SCI
July 2019: rover Drop Operation Slot 2 (which one of 4 rovers?!?)

[Holder of the Tw...]

3d pictures:
http://win98.altervista.org/hayabusa2/3d.html

The first picture, the cross eyed version, is inverted. The asteroid looks inside-out.

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

The first picture, the cross eyed version, is inverted. The asteroid looks inside-out.

because it is not cross-eyes but parallal-eyes.

[elakdawalla]

Wouldn't it be much easier landing on a static pole rather than on a moving equator?

You would think so, but Dante Lauretta explained to me why not. It has to do with the challenges of navigating in the gravity field around the object. If you fly in from the top toward a pole, small imprecision in your understanding of the gravity field gets greatly amplified into where your spacecraft flies. Whereas if you are orbiting and you match velocities as you descend to the surface, it's a much easier situation to describe, physically, and the effect of small errors is much less. (Not sure if this makes sense.) OSIRIS-REx will also be selecting a landing site away from the poles.