Can a spacecraft land on a tiny asteroid?
The Japanese "Hayabusa2" is preparing to try.
Space News, an American media outlet, reported on September 18.
The Japanese "Hayabusa2" will attempt to land on a small asteroid in 2031.
This small asteroid, designated KY26, has a diameter of only about 11 meters,
small enough to fit inside the dome of the VLT eight-meter telescope.
At the same time, its rotation speed is very fast, completing one rotation every five minutes.
This will make the visit by "Hayabusa2" more interesting, but also more challenging.
We have never visited an asteroid of 10 meters in size, so we cannot predict what we will see or what it looks like.
Observational results strongly indicate that this asteroid is composed of solid rock blocks,
rather than a loose, dusty rubble pile.
The mission of "Hayabusa2" aims to understand asteroids, which are the most frequent to collide with Earth.
Japanese scientists said: "Our approach may have an impact on future near-Earth asteroid exploration programs and even asteroid mining."
The Japanese "Hayabusa2" was launched on December 3, 2014. It met the asteroid 1999 JU3 in mid-2018 for exploration and returned to Earth at the end of 2020 with sample materials.
After separating from the recovery capsule, the Hayabusa2 probe continued its space journey and is expected to arrive at the asteroid designated as 1998KY26 around 2031 for non-sampling exploration.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1843640346622983/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.