(1/3) #JAXA's hopping "robots will take advantage of [Ryugu the asteroid’s] low gravity, jumping around on the surface – soaring as high as 15 metres (49ft) and staying in the air for as long as 15 minutes – to survey the asteroid’s physical features."
theguardian.com/science/2018/s…
theguardian.com/science/2018/s…
(2/3) Hayabusa2 (Japanese for falcon) is about the size of a large fridge and equipped with solar panels, and is the successor to JAXA’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa, which failed to land a rover on another asteroid in a similar mission in 2005. via @nycjim
(3/3) "In October, the Hayabusa2 probe will deploy an 'impactor' that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a 2kg copper missile to blast a small crater into the surface."
