Space & Astronomy

Europe's MASCOT rover dies after just one day

By T.K. Randall
October 7, 2018 ·  9 comments

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Japan's space agency JAXA made history last month when it succeeded in landing two 'hopping' rovers on the space rock as part of its ongoing Hayabusa-2 mission.

This week another rover, MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) was sent to join them.

The mission was short-lived, owing to the lack of any recharging mechanism for the battery, however everything went according to plan and the rover collected and transmitted a large amount of data.

"All done with work!" it Tweeted. "Oh my ... can that be right? I explored Ryugu for more than 17 hours. That is more than my team expected. Do I get paid overtime for this?""And during this extra time, I also made another hop and explored part of a third asteroid day! But the best thing is: I sent ALL the data I collected to [Hayabusa-2]!"

"Now, team, it's up to YOU to understand Ryugu."

One of the photographs of the asteroid that MASCOT took during its short life can be viewed below.

Check this out! I took this picture when I was almost on #Ryugu's surface. Look at how sunlight is reflected off me. What a dark surface!
Credit: MASCOT/@DLR_en /@JAXA_en #AsteroidLanding pic.twitter.com/fqM8Jr0WCm

— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 5, 2018

Source: Independent | Comments (9)

Tags: Ryugu, Asteroid