TN: Well here it is, It took quite a while for me to finish it, It was huge, full of a lot of technical terms I had to look up, and I had a bit of IRL things going on. The coming chapters will be a continuation of the main story, so the length will be normal as well, so the release speed will pick up again. Without further ado here is the chapter.
"Here we go, this here is the Kingdom of Luster. Do you guys know what this is?"
“It’s a map, right?”
“Yup, it’s a map. So, where is the kingdom of Luster?”
“In the continent of Asterias!”
“And where is Asterias?”
“Earth!”
“On Earth!”
“Exactly, on Earth, and this Earth is actually round.”
“The priest says that’s not true.”
“Isn’t the world flat?”
“That’s a bit of an old way of thinking. The heliocentric theory that says that the Earth is round and that it revolves around the Sun is the correct one. That’s the conclusion I came to by observing the stars, Sun, Moon and the other planets.The Earth is one of the planets in the solar system. That solar system, in which the planets like Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, revolve around the Sun, itself revolves around the universe......like this.”
“Yes, and the Solar system along with the Earth came to be long before the first humans were born. It was a very, very distant memory, and today we are going to be searching for it together. When you look up at the sky at night, what do you see?”
“The moon!”
“The stars!”
“The Milky Way!”
“The moon, the stars, and the entire milky way are all astronomical objects. The main reason some look larger than others is that the ones closer to us look bigger, and the ones farther away look smaller, and the thing filled with an immeasurable number of them is called the universe. But we, who live on Earth, aren’t able to go into space yet. That’s because it’s so high up in the sky that not even birds can fly up there. How did the Earth that we live on, and the solar system that it’s a part of, come to be? No one knows. But if we ever want to find out, we will have to leave the Earth and pick up asteroids that have been there since before it was formed, those tiny, tiny pieces of stars that never became starsthemselves, and examine them.”
“Wow.”
“Uh... are they as high up as the stars?”
“Yes. They are 300 million kilometres from us, in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and that’s the exact place where I’m going to go to get one. This is a job for!”
“Woooo!”
“It’s a job for Hayabusa. This task, which is absolutely impossible for humans, was intrusted to the asteroid explores Muses-C ‘Hayabusa’!”
“Wasn’t Hayabusa a bird?”
“Hayabusa is a machine. It’s a man-made machine, built with great precision, using the latest science and technology that was ‘within the budget’. But Hayabusa was different from different from ordinary machines.”
“Different how?”
“Hayabusa has a heart. It’s an autonomous computerized robotic spacecraft that can not only listen to commands but can also think, make decisions and act on its own. That’s what makes it different to anything before it!”
“It’s like a human?”
“Exactly. The story about the grand adventure of Hayabusa who was given such a heart, that would take place in the far future many centuries from now is starting!”
“Yay!!”
Clap clap clap clap
“First off is the rocket launch! Since there is no air in space, you can’t flap wings to fly in space. What you need to travel through space is a rocket!”
“Yes, a rocket is the only thing that can fly through empty space. It fires up flames from behind by spewing out combustible gas at high speeds and uses that force to fly! Hayabusa will fly into space using this rocket! On May 9, 2003, the MV5 solid-fuel rocket was launched from the Uchinoura space centre. Launch angle: 80 degrees, diameter: 2.5m, length: 30.8m, dead weight: 140 tons, maximum output: 3 million horsepower! Maximum payload weight 1.8 tons!” [TN-3]
“Huge......”
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LAUNCH!”
“Woooow!”
“The MV-5 is rising through the blue sky!Attitude, acceleration!Direction!Atmosphere breach!First stage rocket detached!Hayabusa ignites its second stage rocket!It took only 75 seconds!”
“Amazing!!!”
“Hayabusa, which became lighter by detaching the first stage rocket, accelerated further. The second stage rocket was also jettisoned, and the nose fairing was opened!Ignition of the third stage rocket and start orbit exit!Shaking off the gravity of the Earth, the third rocket separated!All this in just six minutes!”
“So fast!”
“With one final push, the kick motor of the fourth stage in the payload ignited and separated!Hayabusa deployed its solar panels, which will serve as its wings, toward its destination, the asteroid Itokawa, and finally set off on its space journey!”
Clap clap clap clap
“...... Hayabusa has left the Earth. But now that all rockets have been detached, Hayabusa will have to fly on its own. Its destination, the asteroid Itokawa, is 300 million kilometres away in a straight line, outside the orbit of Mars. As expected, Hayabusa does not have the strength to fly straight over such a distance. That's why Hayabusa's first goal was to follow Itokawa in the same orbit as the asteroid. He approached it slowly and gradually. The distance of the round trip is 6 billion kilometres ....... The return trip is scheduled in four years. In the meantime, Hayabusa has been given an ion engine to keep him going!”
“Ion......?”
“The Ion engine is the first space propulsion engine that runs on electricity.”
“Electricity?”
“Lightning lights up and rumbles, right?”
“Aaaah”
“That’s electricity. Hayabusa uses that power to fly. He shoots gas little by little from his built-in xenon gas tank, ionizes it, accelerates it with microwaves, blows it backward, and flies with the reaction. Hayabusa uses his solar panels to feed on sunlight, which he uses as energy to fly.”
“The power of thunder sounds amazing.”
“Hayabusa is a small satellite weighing only 500 kilograms, so he can only lift a sheet of paper, but even so, he can keep flying for a long time, so he's perfect for long-distance interplanetary flights.”
“....... I don't know what you're talking about, but I know it's amazing.”
“But the first of the four engines, the A engine, was not working properly, so he had to operate with only three engines.This was Hayabusa's first failure. After this, Hayabusa continued to be plagued by equipment failures. To make matters worse, six months after Hayabusa left the Earth, he was exposed to a large amount of cosmic radiation from the largest solar flare in recorded history. A solar flare is an occasional explosion on the sun!The Earth is protected by the geomagnetic Van Allen belts and the atmosphere, so we are fine, but if we were to be exposed to this radiation in empty space, it would be so powerful that it would kill us.The damage to Hayabusa's body was kept to a minimum, but the solar panels that receive sunlight, which is used as food, lost their efficiency, and the power output of the engines decreased. Hayabusa's arrival at Itokawa was delayed by three months.”
“Actually, Hayabusa isn't going to Itokawa right away. He will circle the Earth's orbit, be overtaken by the Earth once heleaves orbit, and then catch up with the Earth again. Hayabusa is not fast enough to catch up with Itokawa, which is moving faster than the Earth. That's where the Earth swing-by comes in!”
“It's an orbital technique in which the Earth catches HAYABUSA once and throws him out at the same momentum to increase its speed and change its direction. The earth revolves around the solar system at a breakneck speed of 110,000 kilometres per hour. Then the Earth, holding onto him with something called gravity, throws him with all that energy.”
“Somehow, that sounds amazing.”
“But he has to go through a very precise orbit that has been calculated. If it deviates even slightly, he will not hit Itokawa, which is 300 million kilometres away. Hayabusa doesn't have the engine power to correct such a deviation. The altitude error allowed for this mission is less than 1 km, and the velocity error is less than 1 cm per second, which is more difficult to achieve than threading a needle. Moreover, this is a one-and-done game, and there are no do-overs!Now, the earth is in sight!”
Gulp
“One year after leaving the Earth, on May 19, 2004, he entered the Earth's gravitational field. The closest approach distance to the Earth is 3700 km, accelerating to 36 km per second!This is a speed with whichit would take us only fifteen seconds to cross the entire Lustral Kingdom!”
“Fi-fifteen seconds?”
“Even if you fly this fast, space is too big and so it takes a long time to cross. It took a year for Hayabusa, who was pushed by the Earth with precision that would have amazed rocket engineers around the world, to capture the image of Itokawa. On July 29, 2005, Hayabusa, who had been flying alone in space for a long time, performed Star Tracker imaging on his destination, Itokawa!Two years and four months after launch, on September 12, 2005, Hayabusa finally arrived 20 km above the asteroid Itokawa!”[TN-6]
“Ooooooo!”
Clap clap clap.
“Hayabusa immediately started hissurveying of Itokawa. The surveying lasted two months. This is the image he sent back. Itokawa was 535 meters long and 209 meters wide. It was curvy, narrow and long.....”
“It looks like a fava bean.”
“A sleeping cat?”
“A tanuki?”
“We thought it looked like a sea otter.”
“What’s a sea otter”
“They're these animals that float in the water, dive down and pick up shells, and then they smash them on their bellies and break them open......”
“Hahahahahah, sis that’s a cat taking a nap!”
“Aaaah, forget it,it doesn’t matter. The Itokawa we actually saw was very different from what we expected. Its gravity was weak, and it looked like a pile of rocks. But its constituent materials are almost identical to meteorites that fall to Earth. This is the first time we've demonstrated that meteorites and asteroids are the same thing. This is one of Hayabusa's achievements.”
“So, a meteorite is a piece of an asteroid that fell to Earth.”
“That's right. But there are so many big rocks all over the place that there is hardly any fine, smooth sand that we can bring back as a sample. The only place where we could land was right here, in this indentation. It's a very small area andHayabusa has decided to land there.”
“Is that difficult?”
“It’s difficult, but doable! Because we have been preparing for it for a long time, but right then, one of Hayabusa’s three reaction wheels was broken.”
“Reakshon...?”
“So, if you were floating mid-air, how would you turn?”
“In the air?”
“Yeah, there is no gravity in space. Yes, there is no gravity in the universe, there is no up or down, everything is floating in the air. What would you do?”
“Hmm, would you wave your hands around?”
“That's what reaction wheels are for. They control the rotation in three directions: forward and backward tilt pitch, left and right tilt roll, and right and left look yaw by ejecting fuel in the needed direction. That's why detailed attitude control should have been possible only when all three engines were working simultaneously.”
“Isn’t it impossible then?”
“It’s still doable!”
“Eeeh?”
“This malfunction was anticipated, so the program was modified, and operations continued using the hydrazine chemical thrusters in conjunction with the two remaining reaction wheels.”
“Hooo......”
“After repeated calculations, just as he was about to make his landing, the second of the three reaction wheels broke down and stopped working on October 2, 2005!Disaster!Impossible!It’s all over!”
“Hayabusa malfunctions too much....”
“Isn’t that the end......”
“But that situation was taken into account as well!”
“Again!?”
“That being said......it wasn’t really expected for two of them to break, no matter what. So, we repeated the preliminary landing test simulation and changed the program to incorporate a single reaction wheel and attitude change prediction by thrusters. It was unreliable, but we had no choice but to do it this way. On November 19, 2005, 926 days after launch, the real deal, the touchdown for sample collection began!”
Gulp
“Descent commencing at seven kilometres above the surface at a rate of ten centimetres per second! Target marker dropped successfully!”
“Tar-get markar?”
“The target marker is a strobe reflector. Itokawa is a land full of sand and rocks, so it's difficult to pinpoint its location just by measuring the topography with a laser length meter. That's why we drop a target marker in advance and descend using only that as our target. At this time, the distance from the Earth is 300 million kilometres. It would take 34 minutes for Hayabusa to respond to our commands. Hayabusa has to judge the situation on site by himself, adjust his posture by himself, and complete this sample collection by himself. It's a big responsibility.”
“......”
“Hayabusa is approaching Itokawa at a lower and lower altitude. Two meters to go: ....... One meter to go: .......”
“Hang in there......”
“Hayabusa you can do it!”
“Right then!”
“Whaa!”
“Hayabusa senses an anomaly! There is an obstacle!”
“At that time, we didn't know what was going from Earth. We received data that Hayabusa, who should have landed on Itokawa long ago, was continuing his descent, and there was a big commotion because it was impossible.”
“What are you doing Hayabusa.......”
“At that time, Hayabusa's sensors detected something interfering, but that should not have been possible. We still don't know what it was. It is said that it was a particle that was charged with static electricity and was floating around. After all, Itokawa's gravity is only 1/60,000th that of the Earth. Hayabusa, in a panic, failed to make an emergency altitude adjustment, which had not been anticipated, and bounced off the surface, losing his attitude and crash-landing on Itokawa.”
“Nooooo......”
“Hayabusa was exposed to Itokawa's surface temperature of over 100 degrees Celsius for more than 30 minutes. This is a temperature that would cook an egg. It took seventeen minutes for the information to reach us, and at least thirty-four minutes for the round trip. There's no time to dawdle!If we don't do something, Hayabusa will really burn to death!”
“Oh no!”
“Hayabusa made an emergency escape on orders from Earth. Hayabusa was able to ascend anyway, but his body was severely damaged. The damage he sustained at that time would come back to haunt him in the future......”
“Mister Hayabusa is really hopeless......”
“So, everyone, what do we do now?”
“What do we do?......”
“It took him two years to get there, and now he’s all injured and battered, and he hasn’t even gotten a piece of the asteroid yet. It's very risky to go back and try again, and the time limit to return to Earth is ticking. What would you do?Would you still go home if you were told later that your mission was a failure?”
“Eeeh......”
“Go home?Would you go back to Earth without doing anything?”
“We can’t do that......”
“Hayabusa!!! Show some guts!”
“Try one more time!”
“One more try! One more try! One more try!”
“So, Hayabusa remembered the errand he had been asked to run. To fetch samples from Itokawa. That's why he came here. Hayabusa gathered up his courage and decided to touch down on Itokawa again!”
“Uwaaaa!”
“November 26, 2005: Second attempt with modified sensor programming. Target, target marker dropped in the Muses Sea!Exactly the same location as last time. On the second attempt, Hayabusa continued its descent with the sampler horn extended downward to collect samples, and this time, it succeeded in touching down!”
“It did it!!!”
“I knew it would make it!”
“Congratulations!!!”
“Way to go!!!”
“Just as the craft landed, he fired a bullet out! Then he was supposed to hoist the sand up to the collection case and sample it but......”[TN-7]
“But......?”
“Maybe it was the shock of landing, or maybe it was the equipment that had been used so hard, but the hydrazine fuel started spouting out of Hayabusa's body. The spewing gas causedhim to spin out of control, making it impossible to control his attitude. The vaporization of the gas caused the interior temperature of the ship to drop to minus 30 degrees. Hayabusa was helpless during this time, and on December 4, 2005, nothing could be done.”
“Again......”
“It’s too risky to use chemical engines for attitude control in this condition. Hayabusa has finally lost all other means of attitude control except for a single reaction wheel......”[TN-8]
“......What can be done?”
“.....This wasn’t supposed to happen. He had to control the spin, which isn’t stopping due to the recoil from the gas leak and point the solar panels at the sun lest he run out of power. Hayabusa was in trouble, and he did something it has been told not to do.”
“What did it do?”
“He blew out xenon gas from the ion engine, which he had been saving for the long trip back to Earth. The xenon gas that was supposed to be charged by the ion engines was blown directly out of the engine in its raw state in order to control the spin. Normally he would never do this, but it worked because the direction of the engine jet happened to be in the right position.”
“But that means he won’t be able to get back home......”
“Does he have enough fuel?”
“Of course, if he kept wasting fuel he wouldn’t have enough for the return trip, but he had no other choices left.But don't worry, he had 66 kg of fuel on board, 22 kg on the way and 12 kg on the way back. He should still have fuel to spare. We put that much as a margin of safety so that even in the worst case scenario he would have enough to get back. So, he still had time.”
“Hayabusa......”
“After using the last resort, Hayabusa was finally able to point his solar panels at the sun and was able to recharge. But with full-fledged data communication with Earth restored, the communication that arrived was disappointing.”
“Disappointing?”
“There was no record of the bullet’s launch in the data that Hayabusa sent back. The bullet that was supposed to be fired upon landing to raise up the sand was not fired. Only one bullet could be fired. There was no do-over. The decision to fire was a careful one, but it may have been a mistake.The cause is still unknown to this day. But if some particles were lifted up by the shock of landing there might have been some collected. It’s a big bet, and Hayabusa is running out of time. But on December 9, 2005 ...... Hayabusa will be hit by the biggest crisis since he left the Earth.”
“There is still more......”
“Why......”
“What’s going on now?......”
“At this time, another fuel leak occurred. The recoil from the spewed fuel made it impossible to stabilize the attitude, and the last of the power was used up. Hayabusa is now truly lost......”
“......”
“......Hayabusa is now lost. No one can go looking for him anymore. In the history of space development, there has never been an example of a probe that was lost and then found again. It's hopeless.......”
“You dummy!”
“What are you doing Hayabusa......”
“Damn itttt!!!”
“After coming so far......”
Sob
“But the staff waited and waited, believing that Hayabusa would contact us. There was no doubt in our minds that he would get back to us. There was no one who doubted that.”
“......Why?”
“Hayabusa has wings that are spread out. He was designed so that his attitude would naturally return to a stable rotation due to the inertia of the solar panels. As long as his attitude is stable, he can make contact with the Earth. Hayabusa will secure the minimum amount of power on its own, and he will surely contact Earth. Before he really dies, he should switch to safe mode and recharge the batteries by himself, even if it's only a little, and contact us.”
“Really!?!”
“And on January 23, 2006, a month and a half or 46 days after the lost mission, Hayabusa's voice came through the noise of the radio telescope, though it was small and slow. Hayabusa, who had switched to the supplemental power circuit, had been waiting in his sleep for the moment when his body would come back from the freeze of the gas leak, his spin would naturally stabilize, and his solar panels would face the sun.”
“Yaaaay!”
Clap clap clap
“But at that time, Hayabusa was wounded. His body was covered with injuries, and his stomach was starving. There was only one moving reaction wheel. The attitude control thrusters were completely damaged, and the hydrazine fuel was empty. The batteries were weak, and four of the eleven cells could not be recharged, making it impossible to eat a full meal. We were already 13,000 kilometres away from the asteroid Itokawa...... The time limit had passed, and it was no longer possible to get into an Earth return orbit.......”
“Wha......”
“So then, what do we do?”
“...what do we do?”
“Give up?”
“Don’t...”
“Give up?Give up on going back to Earth and stay here and become space junk?What would you say to Hayabusa?”
“Hayabusa, come back.”
“Hayabusa come home.”
“Come back! Hayabusaaaaaa!”
“Don’t give up!”
“Hayabusa!!! Show some guts!!!”
“Exactly!Never give up!Hayabusa, even though his body is covered with scars and exhausted, has begun preparing to return to Earth!”
“Yaaay!”
Clap clap clap
“Hayabusa's wings, his solar panels, were also able to stabilize his spin without using fuel by exposing them to solar pressure. However, he has to secure enough power to power the ion engine. Hayabusa used a charge protection circuit to monitor the temperature of the battery and repeatedly recharged the battery, little by little, until finally, after two months, he had enough charge to starthis ion engine, and the capsule was ready for the return trip.”
“Woooooooo!”
“However, the planned return distance to the Earth is 330 million kilometres, and since Hayabusa missed his return timing completely, he was unable to enter his originally planned return orbit, and his arrival on Earth has been postponed by three years. Hayabusa was designed to live for four years. Will Hayabusa be able to withstand seven years of operation, far longer than what he was made for? No one knows if his body will last until Earth. We can only have faith in Hayabusa. On April 25, 2007, Hayabusa left Itokawa's orbit and headed for Earth!”
“Ooooooooooooo!”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
“On October 18, 2007, one of the ion engines with a design life of 15,000 hours per engine finally reached the end of its life, leaving only two engines left. But there were no obstacles to navigation!Hayabusa is steadily approaching the Earth!”
“Way to go Hayabusa!”
“On August 13, 2009, the memory of the computer, which is Hayabusa's brain, started to have some errors, but the program was corrected, and operations continued. He was not going to be discouraged by this!”
“Hang in there!!!”
“September 26, 2009. "September 26, 2009: Restarted ion engines. One year to go to Earth!”
“Amazing......”
“However, on November 4, 2009, with seven months to go before returning to Earth, one of the remaining ion engines finally stopped. The power of the remaining ion engine was decreasing, and there was no telling when it would stop.”
“Wha...?”
“He can't catch up with the Earth. He's not fast enough at all. At this point, it's impossible for Hayabusa to come back......”
“No way......”
“After coming so close......”
“That’s......”
“But don’t worry! That was accounted for!”
“How many times now have you said that it was accounted for......”
“Actually, we connected the engines to each other with diodes so that they can operate together. Hayabusa was able to combine the undamaged gas nozzles of the neutralizer and the microwave engine from the remaining engine and fly with the two engines working as one! This was a dangerous method, but there was no other way left, and Hayabusa was brave enough to try it.”
“Oh my!”
“How many preparations did you make......”
“Cross operation of the ion engines, if he does this, the neutralizer may run out and start to burn, and as he is using two engines the weak battery he has might run out of power. If the power goes down any further the computer will shut down.And so, Hayabusa’s last minute return will continue without anyone being able to predict whether it would end tomorrow or not.”
“Just hang in there !!!!!!”
“Don’t give up !!!!!!”
“Despite irregularities in his operation, Hayabusa is making steady progress, and the final days of the trip are approaching.”
“Finally......”
“Finally, you say?”
“What?”
“In January 2010, Hayabusa was finally able to enter into an Earth impact orbit!It’s all right now. You can return to Earth!Hayabusa will be able to meet his end on Earth.”
“How does his return end?”
“Aren’t you going to go pick him up?”
“Is he going to fall down to earth?”
“If Hayabusa continues as planned, he will enter the Earth's atmosphere, burn up from friction with the air, and disappear...... That's the end of Hayabusa.”
“Disappear......”
“He’s gonna disappear......”
“Can’t you do something?”
“Hey, can’t you do something about it? If that’s going to happen, Hayabusa you don’t have to come back!”
“Stop it!!!”
“Run away! Hayabusa! If it’s now, you can still escape!”
“He can’t do that.”
“Why not!?”
“Originally, Hayabusa was supposed to throw the return capsule containing the samples he had collected back to Earth, and then fly off into space again. However, Hayabusa had a series of problems, and was unable to complete his planned return orbit, so he had to speed up to the limit in order to catch up with the Earth on an unplanned course. His chemical engines were also totally destroyed, and there was no way to correct his trajectory with the Earth in sight.”
“Even so......”
“Do you remember Hayabusa's mission?To pick up sand from the asteroid Itokawa and deliver it to Earth. To solve the 4.6-billion-year mystery of the birth of our solar system. That's why Hayabusa was born, and that's why he left Earth. That was one thing Hayabusa absolutely had to accomplish.”
Sniffle
“Then, on June 13, 2010, the entry began. HAYABUSA entered into an Earth impact orbit toward the Woomera Desert in Australia. The final command, launch of the return capsule, is sent to Hayabusa. Success!The Earth return capsule flies out of Hayabusa, and together with him, it flies toward the Earth's atmosphere at the breakneck speed of 12 km per second. After seeing it off, Hayabusa had very little power left. The depleted battery could not provide enough power, and when Hayabusa entered the shadow of the Earth and lost the power supply from the solar panels, the power would be cut off for good.”
“Hayabusa......”
“Hayabusa, unable to avoid the approaching Earth at breakneck speed, enters the atmosphere, his wings break, he burns up from the heat of friction with the air, the metal melts, and the remaining xenon gas tanks and lithium-ion batteries explode and disperse in a fireball......”
“That’s horrible......”
“Everything evaporated at a fierce high temperature, and Hayabusa disappeared turned into dust. At the end of his life, the glowing figure of Hayabusa was like a shooting star that fell down from space.”
“Waaaaaaah...”
Sniff
“But one of the two shooting stars did not disappear. The return capsule, which was released at a speed of 12 kilometres per second, was protected by a carbon-fibre insulating cover, and withstood the intense frictional heat of over 10,000 degrees Celsius during the atmospheric entry, and indeed delivered to us the fine sample that he had collected from the asteroid Itokawa.”
“EH!?”
“The experimental asteroid probe, Muses-C, Hayabusa. The result was a great success!The return from the asteroid and the sample return were all world firsts!Hayabusa was hurt and failed, but he overcame many crises with his wisdom and courage and completed his errand!”
“Waaaaaaah!”
Clap clap clap clap
“Hayabusa!!!”
“Well done!!!”
“There's one last thing Hayabusa would like you to know.”
“......?”
“Hayabusa before entering the Earth had only one camera that had not been broken. This camera, which had been exposed to space for seven years, was turned on for the first time in three years, and Hayabusa turned around. There was the Earth, his birthplace, which he had returned to after seven years. Earth, the only blue planet in this vast universe.”
“Earth......”
“After a long journey of seven years and six billion kilometres, Hayabusa has finally returned to Earth. Hayabusa, who was about to run out of the last bit of energy he had after finishing his duty, was given one last order, to take pictures of the Earth. The last image was cut off in the middle, like it was take through tears, but Hayabusa was certainly able to see his home world of Earth with his own eyes...... This is a picture of the Earth. It’s not very good because I’m not that good at drawing.”
“The Earth?”
“This is what it looks like?”
“Is this what we live on?”
“That’s right. It might be impossible for us, we might not be able to see what it really looks like during our lifetimes. But don’t forget, our children, our grandchildren, and their descendants will fly into space and gaze at it with their own eyes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Our descendants.”
“That’s right!”
“......”
“Hayabusa saved the life of the return capsule by returning it to Earth in the end, and now because of that,Hayabusa-2 has been sent into space and is exploring another asteroid. That’s a story of the far, far future, but if everyone keeps connecting their lives, I’m sure it will come true.No matter what difficulties you may have, no matter how bad you think it is, never give up until the very end. Live life with all your might, love the people around you and leave something useful for them. I’m sure that is what connects ourlives......”
“......Okay.”
“I will!”
“This is the end of the story ‘Hayabusa’s errand.’, the story of Hayabusa. Thank you all for listening to me until the end!”
“Woooo!!!”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
“TN: I’ll be completely honest, even though the whole chapter was about launching a space probe It was honestly very nicely written and fun to read, though was hard to translate at parts because of all the jargon.”
[TN-1]: Solar system here is written in pure hiragana as opposed as being written in kanji in the line above. Basically, when the explanation is going on the person explaining knows the term, while the kid repeating it is just phonetically repeating the word. That’s why I wrote it like that.
[TN-3]: Well after actually looking it up it actually happened, if you are interested in reading about it you can checkHere. And on a side note, how the hell do you expect people from a medieval world to understand anything you said...
[TN-4]: You say that even though you probably have no idea what she said.
[TN-5]: Again, supposed to be a phonetic pronunciation, but I didn’t know how to butcher this one better.
[TN-6]: Had to read up on this, basically star tracker imagining is something that the craft does to help it make the final approach by using optical and radio imaging
[TN-7]: The way I understood it is that it fires something into the ground to break up the rock and is then supposed to scoop up the particles that were sent flying by the shot.
If you want to contact me or just chat, you can join the Thrax translations discord: Here
