SCMP Economy11h agoScience1 min readChina
JAXA's Hayabusa2 Successfully Alters Asteroid Orbit
Quick Look
- JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission successfully altered an asteroid's orbit, demonstrating advanced technology to potentially deflect Earth-bound threats.
- Mission control confirmed the spacecraft responded perfectly to commands from 100 million km away.
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Why It Matters
The Hayabusa2 mission aimed to demonstrate technology capable of altering an asteroid's orbit, a capability that could be used to protect Earth from potential impacts.
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JAXA said Hayabusa2 performed as expected and responded to all instructions from land-based mission control, about 100 million km away.
According to Yuya Mimasa, head of the mission team, the fly-by had been “as difficult as hitting a 1-yen coin placed in Hokkaido from Okinawa”.
Masaki Fujimoto, director of the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronomical Science, hailed the expedition.
“We were able to demonstrate to the world that we possess the technology to change the orbit of an asteroid heading towards the Earth,” he told reporters on July 6.
Open Questions
- What are the next steps for Hayabusa2?
- What specific asteroid was targeted?
Related Topics
This article was originally published by SCMP Economy.
