MASCOT worked longer and delivered more data than expected
MASCOT worked longer and delivered more data than expected
From the evening of 2 October 2018, 24 hours of absolute tension prevailed in the MASCOT Control Centre at the DLR site in Cologne: Approximately 40 scientists followed the events taking place 300 million kilometres from Earth – even before the applause-filled separation of the German-French landing module on 3 October 2018 at 03:58 CEST [please check!] from the Japanese space probe Hayabusa2, the landing on the asteroid Ryugu six minutes later, and the end of the mission at 21.04 hours CEST. MASCOT fulfilled and exceeded the expectations of the lander, as the batteries delivered more power than planned. Lasting 17 hours, this made it possible to conduct experiments for one additional hour. All four instruments on-board MASCOT did far more than the planned measurements and recordings. In the foreground of the image, we can see MASCOT Project Manager Tra-Mi Ho from the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen at the MASCOT Control Centre of the DLR Microgravity User Support Centre in Cologne, relieved by the almost smooth running of this extraordinary mission. In the background, Ralf Jaumann, Scientific Director of MASCOT, presents some of the 120 images taken with the DLR camera MASCAM of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin.
