Overview of Hayabusa2 extended mission's flyby of Near-Earth Asteroid (98943) Torifune

Masatoshi Hirabayashi, Masahiko Hayakawa, Yuya Mimasu, Naru Hirata, Takuya Iwaki, Shunichi Kamata, Kohei Kitazato, Toru Kouyama, Naoya Sakatani, Hajime Yano, Koki Yumoto, Masahiro Fujiwara, Sumito Shimomura, Takanao Saiki, Hiroshi Takeuchi, Eri Tatsumi, Yuichi Tsuda, Yasuhiro Yokota, Makoto Yoshikawa, Satoshi Tanaka, Hayabusa2 Extended Mission Torifune Flyby Working Group
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.08832 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.08832 https://arxiv.org/html/2604.08832

arXiv:2604.08832v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The Hayabusa2 extended mission, nicknamed Hayabusa2# (# is pronounced SHARP, which stands for the Small Hazardous Asteroid Reconnaissance Probe), is JAXA's small body explorer to conduct science and engineering investigations in space. After the successful return to the Earth with the samples from the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu on December 6, 2020, Hayabusa2 diverted away from Earth to start its decade-long extended mission. The major scope includes engineering demonstration of long-term maintenance strategies for spacecraft and operation systems and scientific investigations during various mission phases. Major scientific investigations include spacecraft-based telescopic observations of exoplanets and zodiacal dust observations during the cruise phase, flyby observations of the near-Earth asteroid (98943) Torifune in July 2026, and rendezvous observations of near-Earth asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. This study overviews Hayabusa2#'s flyby and the physical properties of Torifune. Although the flyby operation planning is still ongoing, the mission will attempt to fly by the target at a distance (from the asteroid's center) of ~1-10 km. The flyby speed is planned to be 5.25 km/s, while the encounter location is 0.81 au from the sun. The mission plans to fix the spacecraft's orientation during the flyby, only allowing for a very limited pointing change to attain higher resolution imaging. The mission will attempt to obtain science and engineering returns during the flyby. The planned investigations will offer stronger insights into material transport mechanisms in the inner solar system and a demonstration of planetary defense technologies.

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Journalaist Aleksandar Brezar compared statements from Yanis #Varoufakis article “Why I went to Moscow” with #Russia narratives. Not surprisingly, he found almost 100% compliance (the quoted block is Varoufakis, then Brezar’s comment):

Russia also has the right to seek security by demanding, as it has done for three decades, that Nato stay out of… Ukraine.

Putin: “Over the past 30 years we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement… (NATO) continued to expand despite our protests and concerns.”

Ukraine becomes in the 21st century what Austria used to be during the Cold War: a neutral but armed European country.

Peskov, March 2022: Russia would accept “the Austrian model” as “a certain compromise”.

The European Union unfreezes Russia’s assets and removes all sanctions.

Putin’s truce demands, Russian Foreign Ministry speech, June 2024: “All Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted.”

Ukraine becomes… a neutral but armed European country with its territorial integrity and political sovereignty jointly guaranteed by all European countries, plus Russia, under the auspices… of the United Nations.

Russia’s March 2022 draft treaty: “Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.”

Signatories shall agree on gradual elimination across Europe of certain categories of weapons, including nuclear.

Russian MFA draft treaty with US, December 2021: “The Parties shall eliminate all existing infrastructure for deployment of nuclear weapons outside their national territories.”

Europe’s leaders chose forever war.”

Many in the West have called it Putin’s forever war. Varoufakis flips it and blames Russia’s ongoing all-out invasion on Europe. “Forever war” is repeated, but Varoufakis doesn’t state who started it anywhere in the article.

He does mention “war’s commencement,” as if it’s a natural disaster that “commences” on its own.

Varoufakis avoids using the word “occupied” for Ukrainian lands throughout. The Donbas and “other territories” are “disputed” and “under Russian control”.

Crimea — illegally annexed in 2014 — is not mentioned once in the entire article. There is no mention of the ICC warrant against Putin, either. Or Russian war crimes.

Yet Varoufakis says that “all war refugees will have the right to return to their pre-2014 homes.” Not 1991, when Ukraine declared independence. No, 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea.

Varoufakis also uses the Good Friday Agreement as a possible model. Except the agreement wasn’t signed while one country was bombing another and kidnapping its children.

Finally, Varoufakis says he visited Moscow last week for an “investment conference” and describes people in attendance as “Russian civil society.” The Russian civil society has been systematically dismantled since February 2022.

Oh, and he said that in Moscow, he also danced for peace. Yet now back home, he is advocating for what Russia wants and for what would effectively represent Ukraine’s capitulation, despite his pre-emptive protestations.

Source: https://xcancel.com/brezaleksandar/status/2042367610612863435?s=20

Made time today to walk up & down hills & stairs to get to this old carob tree growing in a roundabout near the Basilica Begoña. This has to be at least a couple hundred years old.

It's very rainy in Bilbao so it is not the ideal environment for Ceratonia siliqua, yet this one survives, albeit hollow and with many fungi on it. And it's either female or hermaphrodite because it is bearing young pods. #Bilbao #Spain #Espana #Carob #Algarrobo