Hayabusa 2: Japan probe to send lander to asteroid
[ad_1] Image copyright DLR Image caption Artwork: Hayabusa-2 should release Mascot in the early hours of Wednesday Japan's space agency (Jaxa) is about to send a 10kg lander to the surface of an asteroid. The Hayabusa-2 spacecraft will release the German-French Mascot lander onto the asteroid 162173 Ryugu on Wednesday. Mascot will then analyse the asteroid's surface properties, including its mineral composition and magnetic field. Hayabusa-2 reached the asteroid Ryugu in June this year after a three-and-a-half-year journey. On 21 September, Jaxa celebrated a first, as its "mothership" deployed two robot explorers to the surface of Ryugu. Now, it's the turn of the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (Mascot), which has been built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French Space Agency (Cnes)....