The Japanese Spacecraft Hayabusa-2 has begun its third sampling collection of asteroid Ryugu and this one started witha actual bang . The investigation shot a cannon ball - sized missile at the asteroid to make a recondite enough crater for Hayabusa-2 to flee down and collect a sample of subsurface material from the asteroid .
The probe free the Small Carry - on Impactor ( SCI ) , a loose - flying gun , which shot a 2.5 - kilogram ( 5.5 - pound ) copper missile using an explosive propellant heraldic bearing from a distance of 500 metre ( 1,640 understructure ) . Although a free - wing gun might seem a bit of an overkill , it was a necessary caution . It allow the shooting to take space with Hayabusa far enough off to avoid being hit and damage by dust .
The spacecraft also left behind a deployable photographic camera ( DCAM3 ) , which is being used to take the crater and serve map out where Hayabusa will finally vaporize down and land a rover . The cunning deploy the two piece of technical school and then wing round to the other side of Ryugu for protection . Forty minute subsequently , the Japanese space authority ( JAXA ) gave the “ fire ” signaling . JAXA is presently waiting for the debris to clear for DCAM3 to give visual verification of the crater . We do , however , have an image of the debris due to the bomb .
The missile is expected to have created a 2 - metre - wide ( 6 - substructure ) crater . Hayabusa will await two week before descending and collecting its last sample distribution . The quad probe alreadycollected two samplesin February by using small smoke to make detritus clouds of fabric from the surface of Ryugu . It hovered above the surface and used a “ taste horn ” to roll up the liberal material . The samples will be then taken back to Earth by Hayabusa , but not just yet . After the third sample is amass , the space vehicle still has more to do around Ryugu .
The workmanship has already successfully landed three rovers on the surface of Ryugu in 2018 . A 4th one is run short to be deploy in July 2019 , before the observations come to an end in the final months of 2019 . Hayabusa will then fire up its ion engines and begin its return to Earth where it will arrive home in December 2020 . The samples will be dropped into the atmosphere and are bear to land somewhere in Australia .
When it returns to Earth in 2020 , the spacecraft will have locomote over 5 billion km ( 3 billion miles ) . Even that might not be the end of the delegacy for Hayabusa , as it will still have enough fuel to chitchat another near - world asteroid .
