Japan’s Hayabusa2 capsule lands with carbon-rich asteroid samples

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/japan-s-hayabusa2-capsule-lands-carbon-rich-asteroid-samples

Source:  By Dennis Normile, Science Magazine. 

Excerpt: Japan has once again retrieved samples from a distant asteroid, which scientists will scrutinize for clues about the ancient delivery of water and organic molecules to Earth. The return capsule of the Hayabusa2 mission—about the size and shape of a wok—parachuted to a landing in the red desert sand of Woomera, Australia, in the early morning of 6 December, after a nearly 5.3-billion-kilometer trip to the asteroid Ryugu. A helicopter team homed in on a radio beacon and found the capsule intact. Launched in 2014 by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Hayabusa2 spent 18 months circling Ryugu, making remote observations of the diamond-shaped rubble pile. It also released several tiny rovers that hopped on the surface gathering data. After identifying safe spots amid the boulders, the craft made two fleeting touchdowns to grab samples, once from the surface and again after blasting a crater to expose subsurface materials. The goal was to collect 100 milligrams of carbon-rich soil and rock fragments. Just how much material was collected won’t be known until the sample container—the “treasure box”—is opened in clean room facilities in Tokyo this week....  

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