Hayabusa2 Reaches a Dark Diamond in Space

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Technology, Science

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2018

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Japan’s Hayabusa2 is just 6 kilometers from asteroid Ryugu as it prepares to snatch samples of the space rock for return to Earth. ISAS/JAXA Director General and former Hayabusa Mission Project Manager Hitoshi Kuninaka joins us for a conversation about the spacecraft and what’s ahead. Then we hear from Hansjörg Dittus of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) about the German/French lander called MASCOT that was carried to Ryugu by Hayabusa2. Emily Lakdawalla is the new editor of the Planetary Society’s distinguished magazine, The Planetary Report. Bruce Betts explains how to get the most out of a lunar eclipse and the closest Mars has come to Earth for many years. We also give you an extra week to enter the space trivia contest! Learn more at: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2018/0725-2018-kuninaka-dittus-hayabusa2.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Visiting a dark diamond in the sky this week on planetary radio.
0:10.0	Welcome, I'm at Kaplan of the Society, with more of a humid adventure across our solar
0:15.6	system and beyond.
0:17.7	After traveling across much of our inner solar system, Hyobusa 2 is now a hairsbreath from asteroid Ryugu.
0:26.0	It won't be long before the spacecraft touches down on this diamond-shaped mystery.
0:30.9	Before it does, it will release a tiny lander called mascot.
0:35.0	We'll talk with Hitoshi Kununaka, leader of the Hayabusa mission,
0:39.0	and then with Hansior Didas, executive board member for Space Research and Technology at the German Aerospace Center.
0:47.0	Mars is almost close enough to touch.
0:49.0	Okay, not quite, but Bruce Betz is ready to share the great view with us. We begin with
0:54.2	senior editor Emily Loch Duwala who has just accepted a big new job at the
0:59.6	Planetary Society. Welcome back Emily. Tell us about this big new task that you've taken on.
1:05.0	You're speaking to the new editor of The Planetary Report.
1:09.0	Now, some of the people listening to this show may not be familiar with the planetary report, but it's actually
1:14.6	a 40-year-old magazine that circulates to about 50,000 people.
1:19.2	It's the member magazine for the Planetary Society.
1:22.4	It was started in 1980 by Carl Sagan. It was developed by
1:26.4	Charlene Anderson who would later mentor a young planetary science graduate into a
1:32.3	science writer.
1:34.0	I'm talking about me, of course.
1:35.6	And then it was nurtured into its present state
1:38.3	by Jennifer Vaughn, who's now our chief operating officer
	...

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