The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that two small exploration robots separated from the spacecraft “Hayabusa 2” landed on the asteroid “Ryuugu”.

It was the first time in the world that a spacecraft capable of moving over an asteroid succeeded in landing.

According to JAXA, two exploration robots “Minerva 2-1” are separated at 55 meters altitude of Ryuguu on the afternoon of the 21st. Because the gravity is extremely low, approached slowly a few centimeters per second so that it would not fly again with the landing momentum.

After landing on Ryuguu, we used a reaction that rotated the built-in motor, jumped and moved on the ground surface, and photographed color images. It is said that both functions are normal. The photographed image data was sent to the earth via Hayabusa 2 main body, so JAXA was able to confirm landing on the 22nd night.

In the future, the two will prepare for the Hayabusa 2 main body of the Hayabusa body scheduled for October by measuring the temperature of the ground surface and taking pictures while moving.

Hayabusa of the first generation who arrived at the asteroid “Itokawa” in 2005 also had a similar exploration robot, but landing was failed because it could not be separated normally, this time was a challenge again.

Ryuugu, an asteroid about 900 meters in diameter turning around the orbit of Earth and Mars. There are complicated irregularities on the surface and craters with a maximum diameter of about 200 meters in the form of coma. It is thought that it was made around 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born, and there is a possibility that sand and organic matter which kept the state at that time are contained inside.