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Hayabusa2 project chief happy with capsule’s return from asteroid

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06 Dec 2020 09:12:06 GMT9
06 Dec 2020 09:12:06 GMT9

TOKYO: Yuichi Tsuda, chief of the Hayabusa2 project, expressed his pleasure on Sunday after a capsule believed to contain sand samples from asteroid Ryugu successfully returned to Earth on the day after it was separated from the unmanned probe on Saturday.

“I look forward to opening the capsule,” Tsuda, an official of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said at a news conference at the government-affiliated agency’s campus in the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan. The capsule landed on a desert in Australia early Sunday and was retrieved by a JAXA team later in the day.

While the first Hayabusa probe, the predecessor of Hayabusa2, faced an array of challenges during its mission to bring back to Earth samples of sand from its target asteroid, Itokawa, the mission of Hayabusa2 was relatively smooth. Still, Tsuda said, “The members of the Hayabusa2 project team worked hard and did a really good job.” Hayabusa2 spent about six years traveling a total of some 5.2 billion kilometers between Earth and Ryugu.

“We worked (on the Hayabusa2 project) step by step while making careful judgments” based on the lessons from the Hayabusa project, Tsuda said. “I had dreamed (of seeing the capsule come back to Earth), but I had never imagined I would be so happy,” he said.

“It was a perfectly controlled mission,” Hitoshi Kuninaka, director-general of JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, said of the Hayabusa2 project. “As chief of the institute, I strictly instructed the project members, but they did it so beautifully,” he said.

At the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, an event to introduce the history and achievements of Hayabusa2 was held on Sunday, in line with the capsule’s return to Earth.

Visitors said, “Wow,” as they watched a video showing the capsule looking like a shooting star traveling back to the planet.

“I was thrilled as the capsule was collected,” said 5-year-old Hyuga Watanabe, from Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, who visited the museum, also known as Miraikan, with his mother.

“I wish a mass of sand is in the capsule,” the boy said, adding, “Does it have gold or silver?” Hyuga has become interested in space as he watched a movie featuring the first Hayabusa asteroid probe at his home.

“I was taught of the importance of continuing doing something without giving it up even if we run into difficulties,” his 40-year-old mother said. “I want my son to learn about a ‘never give up’ attitude from Hayabusa2,” she said.

“It’s great to be able to find something that dropped into a desert,” Yurika Nishida, 10, a fifth-grade elementary school girl from Koto Ward, said.

JIJI Press

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