Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 visitors, the only precaution necessary for a soft landing was a slow approach speed. And indeed, to confirm the contact, it was necessary to wait until the following day. The two rovers then began to operate as planned, moving by jumping on the sur- face. Each jump can reach 15 meters in height and last up to a quarter of an hour, during which cameras and sensors onboard the small robots investigate the surface. About ten days later, Hayabusa2 also re- leased MASCOT. When it landed on Ryugu early in the morning of October 3 rd , it ended up in an unfavorable position for the tasks it had to perform, so it was repo- sitioned by a remote maneuver, thanks to a swing arm settled into its structure. At that point, the probe performed a complete sequence of measurements with all the instruments, lasted one day and A remarkable illustration of the Hayabusa2 probe, with the solar panels in the foreground. [DLR]