In case you missed it, Hayabusa 2 made a second successful sample collection from Ryugu last month. Now all it has to do is hotfoot it home.

The second sample collection was of subsurface material, previously blown out of a hole to form a new crater. Then collected from the surface.

mollwollfumble said:

In case you missed it, Hayabusa 2 made a second successful sample collection from Ryugu last month. Now all it has to do is hotfoot it home.

The second sample collection was of subsurface material, previously blown out of a hole to form a new crater. Then collected from the surface.

How did all the news agencies miss this? I read it in Nature magazine.

mollwollfumble said:

In case you missed it, Hayabusa 2 made a second successful sample collection from Ryugu last month. Now all it has to do is hotfoot it home.

The second sample collection was of subsurface material, previously blown out of a hole to form a new crater. Then collected from the surface.

Articles from Nature magazine.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02136-z

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01081-1

Japanese spacecraft probes asteroid’s guts for first time. It will be the first time in history that a mission has gathered material from an asteroid’s innards.

Hayabusa2 touched down on Ryugu to collect material from beneath the surface.

Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid mission has performed the last major act in its saga of space exploration. The spacecraft descended on the asteroid Ryugu for the second time this year to collect material from a crater it gouged out in April by bombarding the body’s surface with a pellet.

The spacecraft returns its booty to Earth next year. I can’t wait.

Images taken before and after touchdown of Hayabusa2 on Ryugu