The Hayabusa 2 Project
For centuries, scientists and theologists have debated one of our greatest mysteries: the origin of human life. Did it just start with the right materials in an undersea vent, or was it the work of a god?
According to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), it is possible that the material of life may have arrived on our planet from somewhere outside the solar system. “The main purpose of this mission is to know the origin and evolution of [the] solar system. We want to find the original material of life,” said Makoto Yoshikawa, a leading scientist and the mission manager for JAXA’s ongoing project: Hayabusa 2.
The Hayabusa 2 Project is JAXA’s daring mission to bring plentiful samples of an asteroid back to Earth. Scientists then examine their composition and see if it can develop into life. To do this, Hayabusa 2 enters an orbit around an asteroid, launches a lander multiple times to collect samples of the asteroid’s surface and safely brings those samples back down to Earth.
Only certain asteroids can go through this process. JAXA has selected an asteroid named Ryugu for the mission. Ryugu, scientifically recognized as 162173 Ryugu, is a rare Cg-type asteroid, meaning it contains materials commonly found in both types of asteroids. The huge asteroid has a mass of approximately 4.5 x 1011 kg and is considered one of only two that is within the radius of Mars, the other being a slightly smaller asteroid named Bennu.
“We know a lot about how planets are formed. What we don’t know is the first 100 million years,” Ralf Juamman, principal investigator for the German space agency, said. “Only asteroids can help here, and Ryugu is of a class of asteroid that is very, very pristine.”
The first objective of the Hayabusa 2 was to collect an interior sample of the asteroid.
Hiding on one side of Ryugu, Hayabusa fired an explosive onto the asteroid’s surface, which both flattened out a landing spot for the craft and uncovered more interior material. Then, Hayabusa 2 landed on the surface, collected its sample, shot the sample in a sealed container towards Earth and returned to its orbit around Ryugu.
Four months ago, Hayabusa 2 released the German-and-French-made Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) onto Ryugu. MASCOT tumbled to the surface under low gravity and used an internal system of shifting weight to throw itself about the surface of the asteroid. At this very moment, MASCOT is using a series of cameras and infrared microscopes to study Ryugu’s surface in more detail than ever before.
The project hasn’t been without setbacks. When the craft reached the asteroid in June of 2018, JAXA realized that the surface was covered in large boulders, making it very difficult to land. “We got there, got to our home position, and took our close-up images of the target asteroid to realize that the surface is not friendly to the mission,” Yoshikawa said at an American Astronomical Society press conference.
Hayabusa’s smallest lander, the MINERVA-II, revealed that the surface was completely rocky, only heightening their concerns. Fortunately, JAXA, NASA, DLR and the French Space Agency, in a collaborative effort, were able to identify sites for Hayabusa, MASCOT and other landers to touch down on. MASCOT subsequently landed upside down, posing an additional challenge.
The Hayabusa 2 is currently in orbit around Ryugu and has been sending data back to Earth through MASCOT. The mission is far from over. Later this month, Hayabusa 2 will land on Ryugu for the second of three trips. Scientists are well aware that landing conditions will be perilous and are biting their nails in anticipation of this daring maneuver.
If successful, this project has the potential to fundamentally change the way we think about life and how life got to our planet. It’s bold, it’s difficult and it has been called crazy. Nobody has ever tried to make multiple sampling trips to an asteroid before. There are high hopes that when Hayabusa 2 returns its samples to Earth in 2020, scientists will finally be able to unravel some of human biology’s greatest mysteries.