Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft approaches Earth to drop asteroid samples

Japanese ncy officials said Friday Hayabusa2 craft is on its intended trajectory as it approaches Earth to deliver a capsule containing samples from a distant asteroid that could provide clues to origin of solar system and life on Earth.

craft left asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) away, a year ago. capsule is to be released 220,000 kilometers (136,700 miles) away in and land in a remote, sparsely populated area of Woomera, Australia, on Sunday.

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Hayabusa2 is flying smoothly according to plan, Yuichi Tsuda, project manr at Japan Aero Exploration ncy, said at a briefing ahe of critical separation of capsule from craft on Saturday.

“We trained ourselves and w we are fully prepared. So I'm just praying that equipment that hasn't been used yet will work well and that re will be good wear in Australia," he said. “We are so excited."

In early hours of Sunday, capsule, protected by a heat shield, will briefly turn into a fireball as it reenters atmosphere 120 kilometers (75 miles) above Earth. At about 10 kilometers (6 miles) above ground, a parachute will open to slow its fall and beacon signals will be transmitted to indicate its location.

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JAXA staff have set up satellite dishes at several locations in target area to receive signals, while also preparing marine rar, drones and helicopters to assist in search and retrieval of pan-shaped capsule, 40 centimeters (15 inches) in diameter.

Scientists say y believe samples, especially ones taken from under asteroid’s surface, contain valuable data unaffected by riation and or environmental factors. y are particularly interested in analyzing organic materials in samples.

JAXA hopes to find clues to how materials are distributed in solar system and are related to life on Earth.

For Hayabusa2, it’s t end of mission it started in 2014. After dropping capsule, it will return to and he to ar distant small asteroid called 1998KY26 on a journey slated to take 10 years one way.

So far, its mission has been fully successful. It touched down twice on Ryugu, despite its extremely rocky surface, and successfully collected data and samples during 1½ years it spent near Ryugu after arriving re in June 2018.

In its first touchdown in February 2019, it collected surface dust samples. In a more challenging mission in July that year, it collected underground samples from asteroid for first time in history after landing in a crater that it created earlier by blasting asteroid’s surface.

Asteroids, which orbit sun but are much smaller than planets, are among oldest objects in solar system and refore may help explain how Earth evolved.

Ryugu in Japanese means “Dragon Palace,” name of a sea-bottom castle in a Japanese folk tale.

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(Im Credit: AP)