It may be a while until we see space habitats on asteroids, but JAXA has released the clearest photo yet of asteroid Ryugu’s surface, giving us a better idea of what we’re working with. This image was captured by Hayabusa2, which actually carried four small rovers to investigate the asteroid surface and analyze the environmental context of the samples collected.
One of its landers, MINERVA-II, had two rovers with a scientific payload consisting of a stereo camera, wide-angle camera, and thermometers. Unfortunately, Rover-2 encountered problems prior to deployment from the orbiter, but was released on October 2, 2019 to orbit the asteroid. As for 162173 Rygu, Hayabusa2 successfully returned the sample capsule to Earth on December 5, 2020.
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