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Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2 launched


Coby Foden
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Japan wasted money.. erm, invested in future :smileyhappy: by successfully launching Hayabusa2 Asteroid Explorer on December 3rd, 2014 from the Tanegashima Space Center.

The rocket flew smoothly, and at about approximately one hour, 47 minutes and 21 seconds after liftoff, "Hayabusa2" was separated from the H-IIA F26. We will update you with the latest information on the "Hayabusa2" on the project page.

The target is asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3. Hayabusa 2 is expected to arrive at the target in July 2018, survey the asteroid for a year and a half, depart in December 2019, and return to Earth in December 2020.

(I think no UK funds were used for this project...) :smileywink: :matte-motes-big-grin:
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I love Science...and I love that my kids love, and appreciate, Science. Science is utterly magnificent, despite the fact that humans can be the most idiotic, arrogant and ignorant species on the planet sometimes...especially when it comes to Science ;)

I also love positive threads regarding space exploration, because they're awesome :D

pretty sure that's all I should say about that

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We watched the launch live this morning...amazing, as always. Now the kids will have a memento from yet another live launch (we have tons, lol) thanks to someone who was taping it for them.

 

If you want to watch more of the launch, you can see it here...

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I'm probably odd, but I do find most such research very useful, too. The chance of a big rock hitting earth sooner rather than later is relatively high. The more we learn about those things the better we can work on possibly defending ourselves.

Similar arguments can be made for exploration of other planets and moons in our solar system as well as generally learning more about the cosmos. If humans didn't make "pointless" research we would not be where we are today.

And that is why I say HOORAY for the successful launches, and crossing hooves for the japanese probe. Hopefully they can use Rosetta and Philae data to ensure their own success.

Yay for science!

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I am trying not to get too over-optimistic about this sudden explosion of space projects worldwide (I do realize they've been in the making for some time but it seems they're all being launched at once). I'm so used to thinking of space exploration in terms of NASA only.

I grew up when the only two countries with anything like a meaningful space program were mine (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, our sworn enemies. We each had a space program but the momentum was not provided so much by the quest for knowledge as it was the desire to outdo the other. It did result in the Lunar landing, a night and day I'll never forget. I grew up devouring Science Fiction. I was entranced that we were actually there, that humans were sitting on a world (worldlet, if you prefer) looking back at Earth. I stayed up all night, on the couch in the living room with the TV on, waiting for them to come out of the capsule and step on the surface (I've seen more video of the Mission Control center than you can possibly imagine). At the time, it seemed we were finally on our way. Maybe in my lifetime The Stars My Destination would be a mission, rather than a book at the library.

Unfortunately (from my perspective) things slowed down just when they should have accelerated. It probably didn't help that the Us versus Them impetus ran out of steam as the USSR lost its  sattelite nations, one by one, and began to come apart. They fell out of the competition so we stopped trying, or at least it seemed that way.

Lucky for me, the rest of the world kept pushing. Cassini-Huygens was according to Wikipedia a joint project of NASA and sixteen European countries. The Huygens lander was designed in France and assembled by NASA, for example. When it landed successfully on the surface of Titan in 2005 it became the first craft ever to land on an object in the outer Solar System (I'm sure it must have been mentioned at the time but Cassini-Huygens left Earth via a Titan missile, coincidentally enough).

Now we have things happening all over, from all over. I find that very encouraging. We've got that Big Front Yard. We need only get out there and look.

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