Japan space probe drops hopping rovers toward Ryugu asteroid

A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers toward an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system. If the mission is successful, the rovers will conduct the world's first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface. Taking advantage of the asteroid's low gravity, they will jump around on the surface -- soaring as high as 15 meters (49 feet) and staying in the air for as long as 15 minutes -- to survey the asteroid's physical features with cameras and sensors. So far so good, but JAXA must wait for the Hayabusa2 probe to send data from the rovers to Earth in a day or two to assess whether the release has been a success, officials said. "We are very much hopeful. We don't have confirmation yet, but we are very, very hopeful," Yuichi Tsuda, JAXA project manager, told reporters.