The Hayabusa2 probe will return on December 6 to deliver its samples from the asteroid Ryugu. But that won't be the end of his journey.
In 2019, the Japanese probe Hayabusa2 landed twice on the asteroid Ryugu, a rock 900 meters in diameter , in order to collect samples and bring them back to Earth. A first time in February to collect surface dust, then in July to tackle underground materials. With these maneuvers completed successfully, the probe finally embarked on its return journey in November 2019. Today it prepares to deliver its precious "package" to Australia, at the Woomera Range Complex, a facility run by the Royal Australian Air Force. .
The operation, which must take place on 6 December next , will not be an easy task. It is indeed expected that the probe will drop its capsule at approximately 220,000 km of the earth. Protected by a heat shield, it will then turn into a "ball of fire" as soon as it re-enters the atmosphere at about two hundred kilometers above the ground.
About ten kilometers altitude, a parachute will then open to prepare for its landing and beacon signals will be transmitted to indicate its location. Parabolic antennas scattered by JAXA in several places will capture these signals. Deployed marine radars, drones and helicopters will also aid in the search and recovery mission. For information, this capsule measures only about forty centimeters in diameter.
Scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency believe that the samples contain valuable data unaffected by space radiation and other environmental factors. Also, researchers are eager to be able to analyze these real "time capsules" almost unchanged for 4.5 billion years. These samples could indeed shed considerable light on the formation of the Solar System , but also on the role played by these objects in the appearance of life on our planet.
With this in mind, Makoto Yoshikawa, the Hayabusa2 project's mission leader, said he was particularly interested in the analysis of organics in the Ryugu samples. "These materials are the origin of life on Earth, but we still don't know where they came from" , did he declare. “We hope to find clues by analyzing the samples brought back by Hayabusa2” .
However, that won't be the end of the story. Once this operation is completed, Hayabusa2 will indeed continue its way in space to move towards another small distant asteroid called 1998 KY26 . It is a small, rapidly rotating rock about thirty meters in diameter located between the orbits of Mars and Earth. It should reach it in about ten years.
As a reminder, NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe, which tackled samples from the asteroid Bennu on October 20, is also expected to return to Earth on September 24, 2023 . The capsule should normally land in the desert of Utah, United States.
