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Welcome to the DLR webcast.
What we can see here on the left in front of us is MASCOT.
MASCOT is a landing package weighing around 10 kilograms
that will be flying on board the Japanese Hayabusa-II spacecraft
at the end of 2014. The combination will set off on a journey
of around four years to a target asteroid that still has the somewhat cryptic name of
1999 JU 3. Once there, the lander will detach
from the mother spacecraft, free-fall onto the surface without propulsion,
and begin its scientific mission.
At present, we are continuing with the preparations of the landing module
and the suspension mechanism. Then, we will install
the separation mechanism for the first time,
and connect the two modules to one another.
This is the configuration in which it will be integrated to
the mother spacecraft. Then, we will transfer
the capsule to our colleagues from the Center of Applied Space Technology
and Microgravity, who will install the capsule in the tower.
Here, we are inside the drop tower in Bremen.
If we look up, we can see the 110-metre drop distance
that the capsule will cover. We are responsible
for performing the experiment. The drop capsule is carried up
to the top of the tower and falls through a vacuum for 4.7 seconds.
During this time, the capsule and the experiment
are in a state of weightlessness. The collection container is filled
with polystyrene granules, which are this material.
It is used to decelerate the capsule over a distance of six metres.
Because the drop capsule is travelling relatively fast – 170 kilometres per hour –
this is basically like a serious accident on a motorway.
The whole system is then evacuated.
We pump down to a residual pressure of 10 pascals, meaning that a vacuum
is produced here at one hundred thousandth
of normal atmospheric pressure. This takes around two hours,
as 1700 cubic metres of air are pumped out.
After that, the capsule can be dropped.
MASCOT has four scientific instruments. These are a camera,
a radiometer, a magnetometer and an infrared microscope.
Depending on the gravitational field and the extent of the impulse,
MASCOT can jump between 60 and 200 metres
across the surface of the asteroid.
We have changed the centre of gravity again slightly, and we will now see
what difference this makes in the test. Let’s go! OK, 3 – 2 – 1…
All right, that looks better to me!
Now we extract it from the collection container
filled with polystyrene beads, and you can actually see
that there is something in there. Now, the polystyrene beads
are being gently raised up and pushed to one side.
When MASCOT lands on the asteroid, it will definitely be
something rarely experienced in scientific and engineering life.
After many years of work, we will see a small lander
functioning up there and sending back scientific material.
Without having actually taken a close look at the data yet,
we can say that the test has been very successful.
During a quick inspection, we cannot see any loose components
or broken struts.
Right now I’m very pleased with how it went.