A German-French lander has arrived safely on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu, 300m kilometres from Earth. The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (Mascot) is about the size of a shoebox and weighs 9kg. It was developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and built in cooperation with the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) in France. It was carried to the asteroid by Hayabusa2, a spacecraft built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Ryugu is a near-Earth object of the Apollo group. Touchdown took place on 3 October at 03.18 BST. In the weak gravity of the asteroid, it took the lander 20 minutes to fall just 51 metres to the surface. It joins a pair of Japanese landers ejected by Hayabusa2 last week.
Mascot took 20 images during its descent, and a series of magnetic readings before separation. Once on the surface, a robotic arm was used to correctly orientate the lander, which began a series of experiments and measurements using its four on-board instruments. In addition to the camera and magnetometer, Mascot is equipped with a radiometer and an infrared spectrometer. Ryugu, in common with the other asteroids, is a relic from the formation of the solar system. They may be a missing link in the origin of life on Earth, as they are rich in the carbon-bearing molecules needed for living things.
