tech

Japanese spacecraft sends capsule with asteroid soil samples on its way to Earth

29 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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29 Comments
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Nice work to all concerned. Great to see good levels of cooperation between Japan and Australia on the retrieval of the samples.

14 ( +14 / -0 )

Maybe we'll finally get some answers to those mysterious monoliths!

6 ( +9 / -3 )

I'm smiling at the drum can in the photo. Is that the target for the capsule?

Anyway, I hope it all goes well.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

We have this technology to send and retrieve a spacecraft to an asteroid, and yet we can't afford a higher resolution CCTV footage of the control room...

3 ( +5 / -2 )

An awesome accomplishment.

Truly inspiring.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

I find it astounding that someone can design, build, launch a device into space meet up with an object X million miles away, collect some dust, then return to earth, all this with pin point accuracy, totally amazing.

14 ( +14 / -0 )

technology was there to send a man to a moon but one thing is when will they be able to build spaceships that will warp around to planets.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Brilliant achievement, hope the capsule return goes well. Best of luck to all concerned. Look forward to the results of future investigations on the samples.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Amazing achievement! Well done JAXA! It will be hugely important to see, once the minerals get back to Japan for analysis, how the universe started and when. Also, if there is any signs of life supporting materials.

Next step - Japan on the moon by 2030!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Does it gives me something to rejoice ? despite no job, no sales and doubts whether I will be able to eat tomorrow or thrown out into the streets for not paying rents.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

I'm sure money could be put to better use than that.Ain't nothing out there but trouble.

Space exploration is an integral part of humanity.

Earth will not be around forever, unfortunately.

We are learning how to live in space which will take a good very many generations because doing even the basics things in one's life in space is an arduous effort.

Before earth times out, we humans must jump ship to the closest possible inhabitable planet ( Proxima b ) which is approximately 4.2 lights years away which means 6,300 years in earth time using today's technology.

Generations will live their entire lives on a space craft and know nothing else other than that space ship in the hopes to further humanity, therefore we need to know everything we can get our hands on before we initiate this endeavor.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

How do you want to pay, cash, card or PayPay? -Do you also take asteroid soil samples or pride of scientific success? lol

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Awesome news amidst the sea of negative news. Awesome work as always, Japan!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I hope there is an emergency parachute just in case.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan limited by it's resources and land, should always look at space as the next frontier, plenty of resources to fuel Japan's cities and economy just waiting, floating in space for billions of years.

JAXA budget should be increased. If we want to land a man/woman on the moon, and be the 2nd or 3rd country to do it in History, we need to invest more in JAXA.

The payback will be there once the technology matures enough, advances enough, investing in space will never be a waste of money.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Earth will not be around forever, unfortunately.

As far as the human species is concerned- the Earth will almost certainly be around forever. The planet is an estimated 4.3 billion years old. Homosapiens are only about 300,000 years old. The sun will run out of hydrogen in an estimated 5 billion years. Humanity will be long gone before that. All species in Earth eventually die out. Humans will be no different.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Wonderful!

Let's ignore the silly negative comments.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Congratulations to JAXA for this great achievement! It's interesting to read the few IGNORANT comments by some individuals (I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are Flat-Earthers/"Space Deniers").

MANY of the technologies that humanity enjoys today are a direct or indirect result of decades of Space Exploration.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

2020 is definitely the wrong year to be doing any of this Andromeda Strain stuff.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Next step - Japan on the moon by 2030!

I was hoping for Japan on the earth a bit sooner.

But seriously, this is an amazing bit of lunar drone work and hats off to all involved.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@drlucifer: Does it gives me something to rejoice ? despite no job, no sales and doubts whether I will be able to eat tomorrow or thrown out into the streets for not paying rents.

There will always be someone worse off that the money could have been spent on. The issue I think you are bringing up is the use of taxpayers money as opposed to private investment. The US is making advances through business investment based on contracts with government. That is a limited business model. The key for future advances is to find opportunities with other businesses and space tourism. The profit motive is essential for sustained progress in space. Governments can never sustain a space program based on the use of tax dollars. The US and the USSR have proven that. The Cold War prematurely rushed space exploration to a certain extent. Another Cold War with China might boost it a bit but is limited to geostrategic concerns.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@albaleo I had the same thought. Always look at the background carefully when taking a photo.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As far as the human species is concerned- the Earth will almost certainly be around forever.

The Earth is a death trap. It has a finite life as do all species on it. If humans wish to outlive the Earth, we have to not only get off this rock, but we need to live around other stars and spread wide into the galaxy. That all takes time, learning, skill. Nobody can wake up one morning and decide to live in Antarctica for the next 100 yrs without planning, learning, and developing skills first. The same applies to humans moving into space to live.

It is just like when humans decided to see what's over the ocean horizon and colonize islands. Had they never done that, the world would be a completely different place. Skills that aren't used, atrophy, are forgotten.

A significant number of humans will never leave the Earth to live on other planets. Only 10-200 at a time will go and from them, the species will branch out and survive.

Or we will die off as the Earth's climate goes into extremes like it always has in the past. Except this time, humans are causing the heating that happens every 400K years as CO2 increases and the Earth's orbit becomes closer to the Sun.

Humanity needs to get off this rock. When we finally do, I hope it isn't too late.

Congratulations to the entire Hayabusa2 team. Keep the mission going.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Speaker: "The sun will begin to boil off the all of the water on earth and life will on earth will end in about 3.5 billion years."

Audience Member sits up, startled from dozing off: "Excuse me!? In how many years?"

Speaker: About 3.5 billion years."

Audience Member: "Oh, thank God... I thought you said 3.5 million years."

3 ( +3 / -0 )

cracaphatDec. 5  07:19 pm JST

I'm sure money could be put to better use than that.Ain't nothing out there but trouble.

What kind of 'trouble'? What's to be afraid of? Aliens? God? As the above posters said, some time in the future mankind will have to evacuate the dying planet Earth. We have astronaauts on the ISS constantly. Man is learning to adapt and live in space, and exploration is in our nature.

I saw the Hayabusa2 live on the internet a few hours ago. It reentered our atmosphere and it'll land in the Aussie Woomera desert. Good going and congratulations, JAXA! Let's not forget, a few months ago NASA did the same thing with the closer asteroid Bennu. Kudos to that too, that gives America something else to feel proud of in this ugly 2020 besides giving Disgraceful Don the boot.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As far as the human species is concerned- the Earth will almost certainly be around forever. The planet is an estimated 4.3 billion years old. Homosapiens are only about 300,000 years old. The sun will run out of hydrogen in an estimated 5 billion years. Humanity will be long gone before that. All species in Earth eventually die out. Humans will be no different.

Man will become a multi-planet species in the fullness of time. The urge to survive and procreate is a powerful force of nature. While the Earth will surely be destroyed by the Sun when it balloons into a Red Giant, man will be off living on other planets. It would not surprise me if man figures out how to bioengineer planets in the habitable zone of a star to make it a comfortable home for man and the many plants and creatures we need. We have a couple of hundred million years to figure it out and we have only been flying into space for a little over 60 years.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Bravo Zulu to JAXA! Very nice.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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