Astronomy / Space [Press] Japan launches asteroid-hunting spacecraft

[rootsrat]

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Some interesting facts there, for example:

The $260m spacecraft uses ion engines - a system which uses electricity to accelerate gas particles.
"That makes a jet that goes extremely fast about 30-40km/s," said Dr Francisco Diego, from University College London. "Although the mass of this gas is very very low, it produces a little bit of a push in a very efficient way and that’s enough to steer the spacecraft along the orbit."

That's the lowest speed we can go in Super Cruise in Elite

Also:

The most ambitious part of the mission involves firing a high-speed explosive bullet into the asteroid’s crust.

"It’s going to produce a crater," said Diego. "It's going to produce a puff of material, ejecting material out into space, which is going to be collected by this instrument, and part of that cloud is going to be brought back."

That sounds like Elite mining

All in all, yet another great space mission of the mankind. Hopefully it's successful and will help us understand the universe more. Well done, Japan!