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Space & Astronomy

Europe's MASCOT rover dies after just one day

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

MASCOT was designed and built by the German Aerospace Center. Image Credit: DLR
The latest robotic lander to touch down on the asteroid Ryugu had only enough power to last around 17 hours.
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.



Source: Independent | Comments (9)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by acute 6 years ago
Can't they send a monkey up there with some batteries?
Comment icon #2 Posted by BorizBadinov 6 years ago
Just the fact that they managed to land on asteroids now is pretty awesome. 
Comment icon #3 Posted by Rolci 6 years ago
Over half a century into the space age we're still playing with batteries? On stuff we sent into space? To look at a rock? This cost us how much? I'm sure we couldn't think of a better way to spend that money. Oh, maybe developing more efficient energy storage systems? Just a thought...
Comment icon #4 Posted by OverSword 6 years ago
A rover with a Twitter account and a sense of humor! Cool.
Comment icon #5 Posted by toast 6 years ago
When it makes sense, yes. Like in space probes, heart pacemakers and defibrillator, for example. Calm down, it costs you, as a Briton, nothing. The carrier was build and paid by JAXA (Japan), MASCOT was designed, build and paid by the DLR (Germany), CNES (France) and Japan. There is enough money for both and we need the research on such objects as 60M years ago one of the big fellows switched off the light on Earth. As we need to develop a deference system against such kind of threat, fundamental research is mandatory.    
Comment icon #6 Posted by and then 6 years ago
Awkward... 
Comment icon #7 Posted by smokeycat 6 years ago
Go on then...
Comment icon #8 Posted by highdesert50 6 years ago
Don't be too critical. It is the dreamers that define our destiny.
Comment icon #9 Posted by TripGun 6 years ago
Never send AAA's to do the job of dual C's...


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