During the touchdown, which will last just a few seconds, the unmanned probe will use a projector device to shoot the "bullet" into the asteroid, blowing up material from beneath the surface. If all goes successfully, the craft will then collect samples that would eventually be sent back to Earth. Thursday's attempt is the first of three such touchdowns planned. The spacecraft is expected to touch down on the space rock around 6 p.m. ET. The brief landing will be challenging, given the uneven and boulder-covered surface.

BERLIN -- A shoebox-sized European space robot turned up a few surprises when it hopped around on an asteroid last week. In newly released images, the surface of the asteroid Ryugu is "even crazier" than expected, said Ralf Jaumann of the German Aerospace Center's (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, the scientific director of the MASCOT mission. "Everything is covered in rough blocks and strewn with boulders," he added in an image release. With a diameter of about 3,000 feet (900 meters), Ryugu is one of 17,000 known near-Earth asteroids, and it's made up of some of the most primordial material in the solar system. Studying the space rock's properties and composition could help scientists understand the building blocks of planet formation.

A Japanese probe sent to examine an asteroid will now land several months later than planned, officials have confirmed. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says the high-profile Hayabusa2 is expected to touch down on Ryugu at least three months behind schedule. Specifically, they cite'late January' as the earliest possible opportunity, rather than the end of this month - which was the original time-frame. JAXA project manager Yuichi Tsuda said they needed more time to prepare the landing as data showed the asteroid surface was more rugged than expected. A Japanese probe sent to examine an asteroid will now land several months later than planned, officials have confirmed.

In 2018, ice is everywhere. You can make it yourself by putting a tray of water into the freezer. Or you can find one of those special fridges with an in-unit ice machine and wait for the cold stuff to simply plop out into your cup. But ice used to be much, much harder to get your hands on--and in the era before A/C, it was desperately desired. That's why, for much of the 19th century and into the 20th, ice was the cold, hard heart of an international economy called the "frozen water trade."

The German-French Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander captured this photo of asteroid Ryugu during landing operations on Oct. 3, 2018. The lander's shadow is visible at upper right. A small Japanese probe landed an observation robot on the asteroid Ryugu Tuesday night in mission to study the solar system's origins. The box-shaped lander created by Germany and France's space agencies is called MASCOT or Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout. It was launched from the Hayabusa2 probe and captured numerous photos of the asteroid located more than 186 miles from Earth. "The camera worked perfectly," said Ralf Jaumann, a planetary scientist with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) that built MASCOT, in a statement.

A pair of Japanese robots have captured stunning new photographs and video from the surface of an asteroid 180 million miles away. The cookie tin-shaped robots successfully reached the Ryugu asteroid last week after being released from the Hayabusa2 probe. The stunning new images and video released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency show the craggy surface of the asteroid, and reveal the rover's first'hop' was a success. They were beamed back 180 million miles to Earth by the Hayabusa2 probe. The rovers are being used by Japan's space agency to search for clues of the origins of the solar system.

A pair of Japanese robots have captured stunning photographs of the surface of an asteroid as they landed on it. The cookie tin-shaped robots successfully reached the Ryugu asteroid yesterday, a day after they were released from the Hayabusa2 probe, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed. The stunning photos show the craggy surface of the asteroid and were beamed back 180 million miles to Earth by the probe. This stunning picture of the asteroid's surface was taken by one of the rovers as it jumped on it Rover-1B's took this shot of the asteroid's craggy surface following its three-and-half year journey The rovers are being used by Japan's space agency to search for clues of the origins of the solar system. The rover mission is the world's first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface, according to the agency.

On Saturday afternoon, two rovers known collectively as the MINERVA-II1 (MIcro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid, the second generation) separated from the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft and headed for the nearby surface of the gemstone-shaped asteroid Ryugu. One of the fully-autonomous rovers captured the image above as it hopped across the surface soon after landing. You can see Ryugu to the left, and a reflection of the sun--that bright spot to the right. If it looks a little blurry, that's because the rover was in motion when it snapped the magnificent pic. The gravity on Ryugu is so faint that engineers had to get very creative when thinking of ways to move the rovers around the surface. A rover like the ones used on Mars would simply float away as soon as its wheels started turning.

A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an oddly-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. A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an oddly-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system. The rovers will use the low gravity environment to hop on the asteroid's surface Taking advantage of the asteroid's low gravity, they will jump around on the surface -- soaring as high as 15 metres (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.

Japan's space agency is preparing to deploy two robotic explorers to the surface of an asteroid. On Friday, the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft will despatch a pair of "rovers" to the 1km-wide space rock known as Ryugu. Rover 1A and Rover 1B will move around by hopping in Ryugu's low gravity; they will capture images of the surface and measure temperatures. Hayabusa-2 reached the asteroid Ryugu in June this year after a three-and-a-half-year journey. If all goes well, Hayabusa-2 will be the first spacecraft to successfully place robot rovers on the surface of an asteroid.