After the sun rose on the lander on its third asteroid day, the team commanded one further big hop in order to reach a second landing site. All data that it acquired at that new site was successfully transmitted to the orbiter before the asteroid’s rotation carried MASCOT out of view from Hayabusa2. MASCOT’s last signal was received by Hayabusa2 at 19:04, after 17 hours of operation, slightly overperforming the expected 16 hours. It will still be a few days before all the MASCOT data are transmitted from Hayabusa2 to Earth.

At 11:56 on 4 October, Hayabusa2 began its ascent to return to the home position altitude of 20 kilometers, though the activity was interrupted by another typhoon (Kong-rey) threatening Japan. (The mission does not conduct maneuvers when they cannot be sure of being able to operate out of Japan.) Hayabusa2’s next activity will be a second touchdown rehearsal, in preparation for the first spacecraft touchdown and sample grab at the end of October.

As a postscript, I’ve seen a fair amount of discussion of the white spots that are occasionally visible on the asteroid, like in this photo taken before MASCOT separation: