Hayabusa2 MINERVA-II-1 operation, 20-21 September 2018 Options

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

They are perhaps like sunlight hoppers.

Prof. Takashi Kubota, the designer of previous MINERVA-I rover on Hayabusa 1, on request kindly sent me the paper he published as chapter 6 of book "Intelligence for Space Robotics", titled, "Intelligent Rover with Advanced Mobility for Minor Body Surface　Exploration".

I asked him:

Dear professor Kubota,
I am following MINERVA-II-1 rovers operations on Ryugu, but I cannot find much technical data about them. Can you suggest any link or paper where I can read some details? I would like to figure out which mobility system they use w.r.t. MINERVA-I , and if they are remotely or autonomusly operated.
Are the two rovers identical?

and his answer is:

The mobility of MINERVA-II on Ryugu is the same as MINERVA.
MINERVA-II can hop by an inner torquer (motor).

MINERVA-II can explore Ryugu autonomously.
Two rovers are almost identical.

Takashi

But he does not specify if he's talking about rovers 1a/1b or rover 2, so... who knows?!? I guess I'll have to ask again.


I wrote to kubota dot takashi at jaxa dot jp but can't remember in which page/document I found this.

He has other emails:
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/ims/research/microbi...ofiles/t.kubota
http://robotics.isas.jaxa.jp/kubota_lab/en/people.html

[fredk]

I've taken the time lapse and normalized each of the R, G, B channels to smooth out the exposure changes and colour shifts:

I've made no other edits.

(Sorry about the dithery gif; I'm not sure what other format to use...)

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

Is anybody able to figure out how to use Hugin panorama viewer/stitcher to convert a 125° fisheye to an equirectangular projection?
There are also [...]

I think I got something.

Process:
1) Use Irfanview or any other editor to rotate the image to get an horizontal horizon
2) Launch Hugin
3) Import the single image specifying "circular fisheye" and "125°" as parameters
4) Click on last tab ("Assembler"? It's "Assemblatore" in italian)
5) Click on first button ("Calcola area inquadrata") to get new horizontal and vertical FOV
6) Click "assemble!" button
7) Copy the resulting image on your gyro-equipped Android phone
8) Open it using VR Media Player
9) Select "standard view".
10) Move around the phone to look around you, or select the cardboard icon and use any cardboard viewer.
11) Don't foget to dressup you spacesuit, it's cold up there! (and you'll feel like being there!)

Examples:


Becomes:




Becomes:

[Phil Stooke]

That's very nice.

The merged image I posted above looked fine on my laptop, but when I saw it on a mobile device the colours were rather bizarre, so in case you saw it that way and thought I was re-living the 60s, here is a monochrome version.

Phil

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

I don't know how much scientific it is... but amazing it is by sure! :-)
http://win98.altervista.org/hayabusa2/panomovie01.avi

As above, look at it with cardboard and VR Player.

Used VirtualDub to split into single frames, Hugin to reproject, VideoPad to get back into .AVI.

[Guest_mcmcmc_*]

Found an unofficial transcript/translation of 27/sep press conference:


https://lizard-isana.github.io/jspt/hy2_pre...2018_09_27.html
Quotes:

Total number of the hop and distance of each hop: The 1A did 9 hops, and the 1B did 4 hops. The distance is 10-20m each. (Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, MINERVA-II1 Project Enginner /JAXA)

Names of rovers: There are 2 candidates, but it is secret yet. We’ll name on the basis of their movement. (Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, MINERVA-II1 Project Enginner /JAXA)

* Ryugu rotation period is 7.6 hours, which means 3.16 Sols per EarthDay.
* Rovers delivery happened at 21/09/2018 04.35 GMT .
* Press conference was held 27/09/2018 04.30-05:30 GMT .
* Difference: 6 days, 19 Sols

[Paolo]

Hayabusa2 status (the week of 2018.09.24)
This week, the MINERVA-II1 rovers that landed on the asteroid last week sent images from the asteroid surface. No regolith was seen in these images, only a shocking scenery of large and small boulders. On the other hand, the scenes of sunlight on the asteroid and the rover hopping were both very beautiful and dynamic. Next week is the deployment of the MASCOT lander. The decent operation is always a nervous time and we want to deliver the lander steadily and carefully. (Regolith: fine grain sediments).

I didn't notice it at first, but the rover images show small pebbles and rocks, but little or no sand and dust

[wildespace]

I didn't notice it at first, but the rover images show small pebbles and rocks, but little or no sand and dust

I've also spotted that, looks very rubbly, like a comet's "rubble mantle". What happened to all the fine dust, maybe it fell in through the boulders and is somewhere below them?

[charborob]

Any news from the Minerva landers? Are they still working? I hope we get some more pictures.

[dolphin]

A nuke would obliterate Ryugu. It is seemingly loosely cobbled together through and through.

[PaulH51]

Tweet
'We’ve named our MINERVA-II1 rovers! Named for the symbol of the mythological Roman goddess, Minerva, Rover-1A and Rover-1B are now “Owl” and “Hibou” (horned own in French).'
link: https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa/status/1073159319204421632

[Hungry4info]

There are new images from MINERVA-II1.

I've found these four here. Are there any more anywhere?
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-photos-japan-...vers-rocky.html

Additionally, from that source,

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday the two solar-powered rovers have become inactive and are probably in the shade, but are still responding to signals after three months, exceeding their projected life of several days.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[kenny]

That's very nice.

The merged image I posted above looked fine on my laptop, but when I saw it on a mobile device the colours were rather bizarre, so in case you saw it that way and thought I was re-living the 60s, here is a monochrome version.

Phil

In Phil's post above, does anyone else notice the apparent light-colored layer running through the black boulder just right of centre ?
Is it actually layering in the rock?

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

In Phil's post above, does anyone else notice the apparent light-colored layer running through the black boulder just right of centre ?
Is it actually layering in the rock?

Interesting catch. Really hard to tell with the image if its a reflection or some sort of camera artifact.

Its also not impossible for a rock to be layered on a asteroid i suppose. Rock could of came from anywhere.

[Hungry4info]

The December 2018 press conference pdf, link (pdf), had a number of new images that we had not seen before, that I didn't see mentioned here, including some that were taken on Sols as high as 113.

Attached thumbnail(s)