Japanese space probe launches new robot onto asteroid

Here is a pretty cool video detailing MASCOT's part of the mission as well as the returning samples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H4aZX_8hMA

Impressive shot.

Clearly taken from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon!

This is fascinating and exciting news to read! A breakthrough for science for sure. I don't care who's doing this but kudos to JAXA. The US media is so full of BS, it ain't even mentioning this and it ticks me off.

Starpunk,

The US media is too focused on Trump to report any news anymore, much less international news. That’s why I have to go to places like this to get my US and international news now, along with European news sites.

hooktrunk2, thanks for the video link. 

Interesting to note that the surface of Ryugu in the German video from May is rather smooth, almost like gravel. One of the big surprises upon arrival at Ryugu was that the surface is much rougher than anticipated, with boulders, as can be seen in the actual photos/video from the asteroid.

Are we sure this isn't photoshopped? I am joking.

To be fair to the US media, CNN did mention the Japanese part of this mission: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/28/asia/japan-hayabusa-rovers-first-video-intl/index.html

The photograph above is from the earlier Japanese portion of the mission to this asteroid, but the article is about the European portion named MASCOT. Perhaps the US media is waiting until photos are received from MASCOT.

MattypdxToday 12:09 am JSTStarpunk,

The US media is too focused on Trump to report any news anymore, much less international news. That’s why I have to go to places like this to get my US and international news now, along with European news sites.

If the US had a real POTUS and not a traitor POUTus then maybe they'd cover more milestone events like this one - but even before his cyberhacking coup the media has been focusing on stupid crap like the Kardassians, Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner and such. The big war against ISIS/ISIL doesn't even get a mention anymore. America has been at war everyday somewhere for 17 years and we don't even know 'friend or foe'. It's become reality TV and the 'military-industrial' complex Eisenhower warned about in 1960.