Japanese space probe lands on asteroid 300 million kilometers from Earth

A remarkable scientific achievement. Good luck to this space team for continued success of this program.

JenniSchiebelFeb. 22 10:24 am JSTWonderful!

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands." (Psalm 19)

And our scientific research shows just how complex and even more amazing a job God did while making all this. Our space probes reveal the complexities, wonders and strange beauty all the time.

Great job! Congrats! However let's make sure Japan can train enough STEM students to sustain its efforts in space, and science and engineering in general. Japan is slipping in that regard and it should be a concern. The current success would hopefully boost Japanese youngsters' interest in STEM.

Well done JAXA!

Yes, amazing. This achievement must make Japanese people so proud to be Japanese.

Space exploration and astronomical research is beneficial to all of us.

Well, I, for one, am suitably impressed by Japanese technology and determination. This is simply marvellous and shows what pure science and cooperation can achieve. Well done to all involved.

Looking at all of the posts, even short one-liner congratutory comments, it is amazing to see that someone manages to down vote these comments. We either have flat earthers amongst our midst or posers from a jealous regime maybe?

SaikoPhysco - The Earth picks up tons of stuff every year. It is surprising how much extra mass any gravitational body picks up.

In 1957, Hans Pettersson conducted one of the first direct measurements of the fall of space dust on the Earth, estimating it to be 14,300,000 tons per year.[

...

These showed that the rate of meteors passing into the atmosphere, or flux, was in line with the optical measurements, at around 10,000 to 20,000 tons per year.

@daito_hak ..i didn't know that., thanks for clearing this up.

They're doing amazing stuff that not many countries in the world are doing

Smith, this is indeed good news, but not all scientific investigation needs to have immediate practical application, most of our modern technology is built on scientific discoveries that had no apparent practical application at the time.

AnonymousToday 11:33 am JST

Quite insane that an object can be directed and fully controlled over 280mil kms and then landed precisely on a couple of tatami mats.

Perhaps “unimaginable” might be better than “insane” (no offense meant). The expedition illustrated consummate sanity.

Ha, Ha, Thanks - but No, I think the concept is downright insane, let alone the execution. That it seriously off the planet.(heh)

Well done to all who had a hand in this great feat. This is good for Japan's Scientists and the worlds Scientists who will get to examine the results once the samples are returned to earth. Keep up the outstanding work.

Congratulations to Japan, as always, helping science and humanity to move forward and get to know each other better.

What if.... what if we were able to identify certain asteroids that have valuable minerals and instead of going there an mining them, we hauled them to the Moon and from there mined the resources. Year after year asteroid after asteroid the moon would become the destination for millions of them. Eventually the billions and billions of tons of asteroids would increase the moon's gravity and our tides would become more extreme. Greed always has side effects.

Bill WrightToday 10:19 am JSTGo Japan, all space exploration is a win win for all mankind. Hoprfully you’ll recover great amounts of data for future Analysis .

Actually, JAXA accomplished this feat (bringing back rock samples from an asteroid) , a first for all mankind during the last decade. Nonetheless, this mission goes even further and it will benefit science for everyone in the future. Another feather Japan can stick in its cap. Kudos!

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132182-500-japans-hayabusa-2-may-finally-kick-start-the-asteroid-mining-era/

The world is taking notice.

300 million km is a long way to fly a drone and land it on a rock!

Seriously ... this is a great thing.

This is indeed good news, especially amidst the otherwise near complete lack thereof, and congrats to all the men and women involved. Not sure what practical applications their discoveries will herald in, but space exploration and Discovery is Always fascinating.

Awesome! What an achievement!

Banzai indeed.

This mission is in fact not an only Japanese mission but a cooperation between Japan and Europe.

You seem to have a grudge that makes you want to mislead people. Wikipedia describes this as a Japanese mission, as it in fact is. The space craft deploys 4 small rovers, one of which was indeed made by Germany and France. If that makes the mission a joint mission, then the Italian leather upholstery in a Rolls Royce makes that an Italian car.

Kudos to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency):

The most praiseworthy part of this space endeavor is that it has no smack of military adventurism.

Firing a bullet at an unarmed asteroid doesn't seem very friendly. /s

Congratulations to all involved. Can't wait for the samples to be returned to Earth.

BTW, there isn't any"wind" in space. Perhaps solar wind should be clarified?

Quite insane that an object can be directed and fully controlled over 280mil kms and then landed precisely on a couple of tatami mats.

Perhaps “unimaginable” might be better than “insane” (no offense meant). The expedition illustrated consummate sanity.

@daito_hak

I find it unacceptable that the writer of this article does not say that the robotic explorer MASCOT was designed and fabricated by Germany and France’s space agencies.

but the article says,

the French-German robot MASCOT to help surface observation.

Nicely done!

Congratulations to our all scientists, engineers and other all involving personnel whom did this great job. Banzai Nippon.万歳日本。

Congratulations Japan!! Well done! Best wishes for continued mission success and safe return of the spacecraft!

Wonderful!

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands." (Psalm 19)

This is amazing.

The 10-kilogram observation robot MASCOT

I find it unacceptable that the writer of this article (and I noticed it already before in similar articles published on Japanese media sites) does not say that the robotic explorer MASCOT was designed and fabricated by Germany and France’s space agencies. The fact that this not mentioned in a lot of Japanese media channels tells a lot on how the information gets twisted here. This mission is in fact not an only Japanese mission but a cooperation between Japan and Europe.

 Even 5 years ago, landing on an asteroid would just be in a SF movie! Now its reality. It is limitless the progress humans are making.

Well you seem to be little informed on recent space exploration. On 12 November 2014, Europe's robotic European Space Agency lander Philae carried by the spacecraft Rosetta landed on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. This was a comet not an asteroid so arguably even more difficult to do.

In fact a lot of know-how was used by Japan for this mission from the experience acquired by the European space agencies.

Go Japan, all space exploration is a win win for all mankind. Hoprfully you’ll recover great amounts of data for future Analysis .

Some good news for a change; it's great to feel pride in this uplifting scientific achievement of mankind instead of the shame and revulsion one experiences on a daily basis after reading about the never-ending, sad absurdities of modern civilization.

A big applause to Japan and the people at JAXA. This is really remarkable. Hoping for further success throughout the mission.

Beautiful!

Unbelievable news! Congratulations to Japan on this success. Even 5 years ago, landing on an asteroid would just be in a SF movie! Now its reality. It is limitless the progress humans are making.

Congratulation to Japan for Hayabusa-2 touchdown success!

Quite insane that an object can be directed and fully controlled over 280mil kms and then landed precisely on a couple of tatami mats.

And even more so, collect samples and then take the arduous journey back to earth and remain inact. - they hope.

Super Science.

Wonderful!  Sending something far far away to something tiny with brilliant delicate precision! Thank you!

And folks this is all built on SCIENCE

and research that sometimes looks to have no practical applications.

God, the advancement of knowledge is just AWESOME!

I know there are many twitter haters here but for the ones that are interested in following the Hayabusa2 actions, here is their official twitter account:

https://twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa

Good for Japan, an amazing technological achievement!

Ok, it's a computer graphic image, but surely it's not the actual landing?