JAXA Successfully Lands Space Probe on Asteroid

This week, as we released our most recent book ROBOT PLANET- a story about a robotic rover on Mars, another rover-laden space probe made headlines elsewhere. Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that it has successfully landed its Hayabusa 2 probe on the asteroid known as Ryugu The potato-shaped asteroid is said to be three hundred kilometers away from earth. The Hayabusa 2 is expected to fire an impactor blast into the surface to collect samples before lifting off and returning to Earth in 2020. The probe is said to be equipped with two tiny MINERVA-II rover robots as well as the 10-kilogram French-German observation robot  MASCOT that will scan the surface temperatures and measure the magnetic fields. While the mission itself has had issues aligning with Earth, it is now streaming data and by many accounts, a success. 

We at American Mishima wish to congratulate the Hayabusa 2 Mission team on their recent achievement. おめでとう ございます!

China Successfully Lands Rover on the Dark Side of the Moon

Seen here is the first image taken by China's National Space Administration's Chang'e-4 Rover. It set down on Thursday in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the moon's largest and oldest impact crater on the Dark Side of the Moon. Communication to ground controllers in Beijing must be done by a relay satellite that orbits the moon launched earlier in 2018. The Chang'e 4 rover is 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and about 1 meter (3.3 feet) wide and tall, with two foldable solar panels and six wheels. Such design is based on the PRC's earlier Jade Rabbit mission. 

This is a big move for the PRC and one we can say to be a positive Scientific venture that could benefit all Mankind. We are hoping the Chinese will take some good high definition photos NASA thus far has not provided. It's crazy to think we have 3-D imaging of Mars, but when it comes to the Dark Side of the Moon, we are still relying on grainy black & white photos from the 1960s. Hopefully, China will change that and help answer some lingering mysteries. And while we have been highly critical of their military expansionism in the South China Seas, we wish the Chinese National Space Administration great success in the exploration of Space.