This morning, Japan launched the Yabusa-2 spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid

A Japanese spacecraft with a German lander and an Israeli computer sets out to explore an asteroid and bring samples to Israel

A few weeks after the European Space Agency succeeded - almost completely - in the operation to land a spacecraft on a comet, the Japanese Space Agency wants to return and prove its technological superiority. After several delays due to weather, the "Hayabusa 2" spacecraft, which is supposed to study an asteroid, was launched this morning. The mission of the Japanese spacecraft is more complex than that of the European agency. It is also supposed to send a lander to the surface of the asteroid, but the lander, which was produced by a German corporation, is supposed to operate there for about a year and a half, and also skip between several sites on the surface of the asteroid. In addition, the mother spacecraft is supposed to bombard the surface of the asteroid with a large metal projectile, and then sample the dust grains that will emerge from the impact site. It also has several flybys planned very close to it, again, to collect soil samples. The spacecraft's journey to the asteroid, which meanwhile bears the catchy name 1999JU3, should last 3.5 years. The German lander, Mascot, is expected to operate for a year and a half on the surface, before the mother spacecraft leaves the asteroid, and returns to Earth with the samples at the end of 2020.

The source of life

"Hyabusa", "falcon" in Japanese, was a spacecraft that managed to collect samples from an asteroid and return them to Earth about four years ago, at the end of a journey full of hardships and failures. The next generation, "Hyabusa-2", is supposed to land on a smaller asteroid (a ball with a diameter of about 900 m), and another type, which should shed more information on the origins of the Earth. Asteroids, unlike comets, are rocky Space that doesn't contain much ice, so they don't form a tail when they approach the Sun. The scientists believe that the water that was stored inside the rocks of the asteroids that collided with the ancient Earth, is the main source of the ocean water that we have today Equally important, the asteroids probably brought to the young Earth most of the organic materials that made life possible on the planet ours

The computer is from Mikneam

As with any good space mission, "Hyabusa 2" also has an Israeli component. This time it's the lander's computer, "Mascot", developed at the "Ramon Chips" company in Mikneam. The company manufactures computers for space flights. "Such computers are supposed to be particularly strong and reliable," explains the company's CEO, Prof. Ran Ginosar. "They should be resistant to the strong radiation in space, withstand extreme temperature changes, and be adapted to heat emission, because in space there is no air cooling like on Earth". This is a fairly small chip, a square of 3 x 3 cm, and 0.5 cm thick. This tiny processor should manage all Landing operations - from landing on the surface of the asteroid and anchoring to the ground, to the activation of the research instruments. The company "Ramon Chips", named after the astronaut Ilan Ramon, was established a decade ago, based on knowledge developed at the Technion. This is the first processor it sends into space, and several similar processors installed in spacecraft and satellites that are supposed to go into space in the coming years, including the Technion's "Samson" project, which includes a fleet of satellites autonomous, and the SpaceIL spacecraft, which a group of young entrepreneurs plans to launch to the moon next year. Now the company, funded by the Ministry of Science, is working on developing a much more powerful and advanced space processor, with the goal that in the future astronauts will be able to process a lot of information themselves, and thus will have to transfer less raw information to the sphere the country