Elizabeth Tasker
@elizabethtasker
UK astrophysicist and science communicator working at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Author of 'The Planet Factory' and editor of ‘Planetary Diversity’. Very into space, virtual reality, computer graphics and rescue cats.
We’re going up, up, up, it’s our moment! 🚀Night launch of the JAXA H3 rocket, in movie form 🎬 snapped from the hilltop (宇宙が丘公園 Uchuugaoka Park) on Tanegashima island. (And yes, KPOP Demon Hunters is always appropriate. Shut up.)
Night launch of the JAXA H3 rocket from the Tanegashima launch site! The payload is Michibiki No. 7, part of Japan’s new navigation satellite system.
I swear there’s a rocket out there 🚀. Tanegashima must be the most beautiful launch site in the world, but right now I cannot prove it 🌌
A summer pastime for kiddies in Japan is to collect bugs. The shop near me sells Pokéballs for you to put them in! Gotta catch them all!
The nearby vet is closed on Sunday, so we had an hour journey to a vet across town. Despite the trek, I love this clinic. They run a #TNR program and are fabulous with stray cats. I bring them the wildest, feline-part-werewolf and they make them into cat burritos and handle them like kittens.
New glasses! With progressive (varifocal) lenses because HELLO MID-FORTIES. (If you don’t know what those are, you will one day my sweet summer child.) Also, who knew this is what Tokyo looks like?! Wild. The world tilts if I turn my head sharply. I hear this takes practice.
So. This is… not… the Friday I was planning 🤔 On the plus side, I was home and know which cat. On the negative side, it’s the one I’ve never tried to stuff in a carrier in this apartment. Nobody (including the vet) is going to enjoy this 😐 #CasperCat
The mural at my tennis club reflects the rainy season ☔️. We’re now at the tail-end of the rainy season, where the water pours from us rather than the sky 😅
I have been gifted a flask that truly reflects my view of the world.
From communicating with policymakers, combating misinformation, understanding the ethics and best practices for AI, and leveraging technology in your research, join us in Japan or online this November 1 ~ 6 🧪. Early-bird registration until July 24 🐦. Website 🔭: iau-oao.nao.ac.jp/iaus409/
After tennis—which I’ll admit was a bit like playing in a swamp due to the humidity!—a rice bowl packed with sashimi for a treat 🍚
Visited Jonan Pet Cemetery to renew the memorial plate for #CassieCat. I say this every time, but the pet shrine is wonderful. There’s always offerings from visitors and a gentleman with a bunch of flowers came in as I left, having respectfully given me space. Every time I go, I think good choice!
OK, so Hayabusa2 powers between asteroids using ion engines (a JAXA speciality) 🔭, but MMX is going to be using more traditional chemical propulsion 🛰️. In our #MMXTeamQQ, Imade Takane highlights why we made that choice 🧪.
Assuming I am understanding Yoshikawa Makoto correctly, I think the model in his hand was our best guess of the shape of Torifune based on light curve data from Earth. It demonstrates how much information even a rapid flyby can provide on the nature of an asteroid.
HELL YEAH! Torifune is another Itokawa; a contact binary where two asteroids collided gently enough to merge. In the case of Itokawa, the two parts were likely fragments of the same parent asteroid that fragmented during a catastrophic collision, and then gentle bounced back together.
Cat cugs! (Shortly followed by cat wrestles 😼) #CasperCat #NorahNeko
Mimasu Yuya looks like he may need to sleep until we reach 1998 KY26 in 2031. If we make it (and will really stretch an old spacecraft), the second target for the Hayabusa2♯ Extended Mission is a rendezvous with a small, rapidly spinning asteroid; a type never previously visited.
In the centre here is the JAXA ISAS Director General Fujimoto Masaki, clearly congratulating the team. In front of him in a white jacket is Tsuda Yuichi, former Hayabusa2 Project Manager and now Deputy Director General of JAXA ISAS.
At the front in the bright blue jacket—beaming like a lantern—is Mimasu Yuya, team leader for the Hayabusa2♯ Extended Mission. He's holding a Japanese Daruma doll. One eye is painted when you make a wish, and the second is coloured when that wish comes true. I think this doll is about to get 2 eyes!
And that's a wrap! Unlike the NASA DART mission, Hayabusa2 was never designed for flyby (or impact) observations, so I think we now have to wait until the spacecraft can be rotated to allow the high gain antenna to transmit images to the Earth. My guess is we might see something tomorrow... 🤞
Snap from the Hayabusa2# control room in the live stream! I’m liking the new Torifune flyby mission jackets 🛰️👀🪨. For the extended mission, the team changed to place more junior members in lead positions. I heard it was their ingenuity that is allowing such a close flyby to Torifune to be attempted.
My documents are in an (almost) appropriate file! Hit by a massive solar flare, the first Hayabusa never had a chance for an extended mission. The spacecraft was so damaged when it returned to Earth that the team could only rotate its cameras to see home before it burned up in our atmosphere.
IT'S ROCK N' FLYBY TIME! Now on an extended mission, Hayabusa2 will attempt flyby observations of asteroid Torifune at ~18:30 JST tonight (07/05) 🛰️👀🪨 Turning a rendezvous mission into a flyby spacecraft is not trivial, but it's exactly what we might need to do to save the Earth on short notice 🔭🧪.
This is why I have trust issues 😐 (And why we should ALL have trust issues.)
A visit to Nagato, a town seemingly so remote that it took two train staff and a physical paper map to purchase tickets 😂 We only saw three convenience stores 😱 IS THIS EVEN CIVILISATION?! (My friend used to live there and would claim yes, but I remain skeptical!)