The Conversation
illustration: Akihiro Ikeshita/JAXA
Okaerinasai is Japanese for “Welcome back.” It’s a word everyone at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA will be shouting together around 2 am Tokyo time on December 6, when a capsule ejected from the Hayabusa2 space probe is due to land in Woomera, South Australia, after a 5.2 billion kilometer round-trip.
<p>The reentry capsule is expected to contain precious particles scooped from the rock-strewn surface and subsurface of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162173_Ryugu">Ryugu</a>, a diamond-shape asteroid less than a kilometer in diameter. This difficult trick was pulled off as Ryugu traveled on its 16-month orbit around the sun between Earth and Mars. What’s more, Hayabusa2 was able to land twice on the spinning asteroid and complete <a href="/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/space-explorer-hayabusa2-prepares-to-land-on-a-diamondshaped-asteroid-900-meters-wide">a series of missions</a>. Perhaps the most difficult and spectacular of these was using an impactor to form a crater on the asteroid for gathering particles from below its surface—one of a number of firsts in space exploration Hayabusa2 has achieved.</p>
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<p>Providing all goes as planned, the capsule will separate from the spacecraft on December 5, some 220,000 km from Earth. After which Hayabusa2 will enter an escape trajectory to depart Earth and commence on an extension of its mission. So long as the craft is still operational and has 50 percent of its xenon fuel remaining to drive its <a href="/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/space-explorer-hayabusa2-prepares-to-land-on-a-diamondshaped-asteroid-900-meters-wide">ion thruster engines</a>, JAXA has set it the goal of visiting and observing an asteroid of a type never explored before. If successful, Hayabusa2 will reach its target in 2031.</p>
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<p>In a press briefing a week before the landing, the project’s mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa explained how a JAXA team, working with the <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/policies-and-initiatives/australian-space-agency">Australian Space Agency,</a> will locate and retrieve the capsule. Ground stations and an airplane flying above the clouds will triangulate the capsule fireball’s progress through the Earth’s atmosphere by measuring its light trail. Then, at an altitude of 10 km above the Earth, the capsule will deploy a parachute and land somewhere (depending on weather conditions) within a 100 km<sup>2</sup> area of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woomera,_South_Australia">Woomera desert</a>. </p>
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<p>Yoshikawa described how JAXA track and trace the capsule. Four marine radar units have been set up around the predicted landing area. Their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan-beam_antenna">fan-beam horizontal rotating antenna</a> will track an umbrella made of radar-reflective-cloth attached to the top of the descending parachute. At the same time, a radio beacon in the capsule will begin signaling its location. </p>
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<p>“A helicopter and a team on the ground will track the beacon’s signal that will continue transmitting after landing,” Yoshikawa added. “We’re also bringing drones to help us find it as quickly as possible.”</p>
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<p>The capsule will be taken by helicopter to a quick-look facility established in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Woomera_Range_Complex">Woomera Prohibited Area</a>. There, the instrument module and sealed containers holding the Ryugu samples will be removed, including any gas released by the particles, and stored and sealed in special containers and airlifted to Japan. The aim is to complete all this in less than 100 hours after the landing to minimize any risk of contamination.</p>
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<p>Once at JAXA, the samples will be removed in a vacuum environment inside a cleanroom. Over the next two years, each particle will be analyzed, described, and curated, with some of the particles being sent to international organizations, including NASA, for further study.</p>
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<p>In a separate press briefing in Australia on December 1, Masaki Fujimoto, a Deputy Director at JAXA, explained why the samples taken from Ryugu are so important. Earth, being relatively close to the sun, was created dry without much water present. Something must have brought the H<sub>2</sub>O here. Ryugu is a primordial asteroid born outside the inner solar system and is the kind of body that could have brought water and organic materials to our planet that enabled the creation of life.</p>
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<p>Analysis of the collected samples, says Fujimoto, “could help answer the fundamental question of how our planet became habitable.” </p>
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<p>He said that the asteroid samples gathered will likely amount to around one gram. “One gram may sound small to some of you,” said Fujimoto, “but for us, it is huge and enough to address the science questions we have in mind.”</p>
<p><strong style="font-style:italic">Update (Dec. 6):</strong><em> JAXA confirmed the reentry capsule entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 2.28 a.m. Japan standard time on December 6. A helicopter searched for and located it in the Woomera desert at 4.47, then flew it to the quick look facility in the Woomera Prohibited Area, arriving just after 8 a.m. The JAXA recovery team is expected to extract any gas from the captured Ryugu samples. On its approach and orbit, beginning on December 5, Hayabusa2 performed several trajectory maneuvers to successfully depart Earth’s orbit and has now set out on its extended mission to observe an asteroid it hopes to visit in 2031.</em></p>
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What’s in Store for Next Year’s IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Virtual Conference
December 04 | 2020
Photo: iStockphoto
THE INSTITUTE The 2021 IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (WIE ILC) is scheduled to be held virtually from 27 to 30 April.
The annual conference aims to support and sustain female leaders and technologists, especially those in mid- to senior career.
<p>We are hoping to build on the success of last year’s conference, which was supposed to be held in person in May at the San Diego Convention Center but was converted into a virtual event because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Held throughout June, the virtual conference retained all the keynotes, several of the other talks, and many of the networking events.</p>
<p>Last year’s experience proved a virtual conference could keep some of the unique features—including that special, member-to-member connection—that the face-to-face event has always had.</p>
<p>Attendance nearly doubled, from 1,600 attendees to 2,800, and the reach of the conference grew from 50 countries to 95. In many ways, 2020 was the start of true global outreach for the WIE ILC.</p>
<p>Although we will miss seeing attendees in person next year, we hope everyone understands that it is safer for attendees, speakers, sponsors, and the conference committee to meet virtually for a second year in a row.</p>
<p>For our second virtual conference, we hope to provide a truly global experience for attendees, speakers, and sponsors. The intent is to time-shift the conference so that watch parties can gather at specified times to participate when attendees can best tune in, whether that’s during the day or in the evening. The conference will schedule networking events that will accommodate several time zones. We are working to address language barriers, as well, by scheduling some non-English networking events.</p>
<p>I believe the meeting’s magical attendee-to-attendee connection can be transferred to the virtual platform by making it possible for attendees to work together in small groups during workshops so that everyone can discuss what is going on with their engineering projects and how to make their work lives better.</p>
<h3 class="tisubhead">TOPICS</h3>
<p>The theme for 2021 is Accelerating Through Change.</p>
<p>In the past, our most popular events at the conference have been skill-building workshops for career management, breakout talks on the newest technologies, and executive leadership training.</p>
<p>Our leadership and career topics include career management; empowerment; government and laboratory work environments; increasing inclusion, intersectionality, and representation; leadership development and advancement; and managing teams and technology during COVID-19.</p>
<p>Sessions on technology will cover artificial intelligence, biotechnology, communications, disruptive/emerging technologies, and machine learning.</p>
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<h3 class="tisubhead">NEW OFFERINGS</h3>
<p>We will have a new virtual platform that is more flexible and interactive for attendees, speakers, and sponsors.</p>
<p>The inclusion of a virtual expo floor will help us highlight our sponsors more effectively. The conference’s partners will have a virtual booth for interacting with attendees and sponsoring networking events. The partners can use the virtual platform to show off their newest technology. This new expo floor should be as dynamic as usual, allowing attendees to talk, one on one, with partners to discuss technology or career opportunities. If you are interested in partnership support, <a href="mailto:partners@ieee-wie-ilc.org?subject=Conference%20partnership">contact us</a>.</p>
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<h3 class="tisubhead">SPEAKERS NEEDED</h3>
<p>We are seeking proposals for speakers and events, including keynote addresses, breakout sessions, tutorials, panels, and workshops. Our past speakers have come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Embracing a diversity of representation is always important to the conference.</p>
<p>We hope that some will provide talks specifically focused on managing the COVID-19 pandemic at work, including effectively leading dispersed teams and adapting to working from home. We also would like examples of how technology is helping people thrive.</p>
<p>As a result of the conference, we hope our attendees will come out of the pandemic stronger and more resilient, and with more resources for the next set of challenges.</p>
<p>We also are seeking people who can present on the topics of intersectionality and representation in technology. Intersectionality provides a framework to explain the interconnected nature of race, class, and gender that can disadvantage women of color.</p>
<p>If you would like to be a speaker, please fill out a <a href="http://ieee-wie-ilc.org/cfs2021">form</a>. The deadline is 19 December.</p>
<p>You can view <a href="https://ieeetv.ieee.org/channels/wie">several speakers</a> from this year’s conference on IEEE TV. The speeches include keynotes by financial advisor <a href="https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/team/sallie-krawcheck">Sally Krawcheck</a>, a founder of <a href="https://www.ellevest.com/">Ellevest</a>, who discussed the wealth gap for underrepresented minorities; and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonitalontoh/">Sonita Lontoh</a>, global head of marketing at HP, who shared a story about bringing her passion to the work environment.</p>
<h3 class="tisubhead">HELP WANTED</h3>
<p>You can help us develop our global networking events. If you are interested in hosting an event in your time zone, reach out to the <a href="mailto:contact@ieee-wie-ilc.org?subject=I'm%20interested%20in%20hosting%20a%20networking%20event">conference committee staff</a>. Such events can focus on specific IEEE regions or sections, including specialized events for non-English speakers.</p>
<p>We believe the full WIE ILC program, including keynotes, breakouts, tutorials, workshops, and networking events, can be restored. We look forward to having you join us as an attendee, speaker, or sponsor. And we hope that we will be able to see you all safely and in person in 2022.</p>
<p><em>IEEE Senior Member </em><a href="http://ieee-wie-ilc.org/committee/"><em>Heather Quinn</em></a><em> is general chair for the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference 2021 and 2022.</em></p>
<p><em>IEEE membership offers a wide range of <a href="https://www.ieee.org/membership/join/promo/institute-alert.html">benefits and opportunities</a> for those who share a common interest in technology. If you are not already a member, consider joining IEEE and becoming part of a worldwide network of more than 400,000 students and professionals.</em></p>
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