* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) mission

Blobrana · L

Mission control has confirmed that the program for sample collection started.

Mr.matokawa held up two fingers (like a Victory-V sign) to the live broadcasting camera a while ago.
It could be that the probe may try to land again, or he was indicating the probe landed twice.

Blobrana · L

It seems that the probe has been confirmed to have landed on the asteroid.

Blobrana · L

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Pictures from smatsu.air-nifty.com

Blobrana · L

It seems that the probe may have drifted from the target area in the Muse C .
Conflicting Doppler readings may have indicated a sloping surface.
There is this rocky area call "Yatsuga-take", approximately 60 meters away from the planned landing site.
The downlink will be established via Usuda station around 8:10am JST.

Blobrana · L

Mission control is switching the communication link to Usudat station.

Blobrana · L

The Doppler signal was disturbed at the moment of touchdown, which was not expected for a 'smooth' touchdown according to a press statement.
The video footage shows there was a momentary interruption of the beacon signal at around 7:20JST, and at around 7:26JST the beacon signal started up again.
Around 7:28JST, the ascent was announced.
Next updated will be around 2:00 UTC 26th November

Blobrana · L

Telemetry from the high gain antenna around at 11 AM JST will enables the mission control to get information from Hayabusa and confirm if the probe landed.

Blobrana · L

Hayabusa may have drifted away from the landing area.

It is not clear if the probe landed.

Blobrana · L

No confirmation!

The Hayabusa probe has been told to ascend for some reason.