Japan is doing some incredible things with its Hayabusa2 asteroid probe. The spacecraft has now spent several months in orbit around the space rock known as Ryugu, and it’s blown not one but two holes into its side. Now, in yet another potentially dangerous maneuver, Japanese space agency JAXA has commanded the probe to perform a brief touchdown on the asteroid’s surface.
The plan is a bold one: The spacecraft is tasked with returning samples of asteroid material back to Earth, but first, it has to uncover some of the material below the outer surface to get a pristine sample. To do that, Hayabusa2 fired two “bullets” into Ryugu’s side. The current sample retrieval is the second such attempt, but there are still many risks.
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Japan’s asteroid probe is about to attempt its second daring asteroid touchdown originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 10 Jul 2019 at 18:35:40 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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