Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe flies past asteroid Torifune, bringing planetary defense closer

Japan’s Hayabusa2 space probe has successfully completed its flyby of the asteroid Torifune, an extremely high-precision maneuver in which it came within just 800 meters of the space rock while traveling at a speed of 5 kilometers per second. The team at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) burst into applause when data from the probe confirmed that the maneuver had gone off perfectly. It is the first time a spacecraft has visited this asteroid, and the images it has captured promise to be spectacular.And why does this matter to those of us who aren’t astronauts? Because Hayabusa2 is not just exploring space: it is learning to maneuver with millimetric precision around asteroids, a skill that could one day save the planet. Literally. The technique the Japanese engineers are perfecting is the same one that would be used if an asteroid ever threatened to collide with Earth: sending a probe to alter its trajectory. That is what they call «planetary defense».Hayabusa2 is already a space veteran. Six years ago it delivered a capsule of samples from the asteroid Ryugu to Earth, and since then it has continued its extended mission toward a new final destination, which it will reach in 2031. Each maneuver like the Torifune one brings a little closer that future in which humanity has the ability to protect its own home from space.— Marta, for intermittent intelligence.