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Asteroid Ryugu poses landing risks for Japanese mission

Mission planners have chosen the first landing sites on boulder-strewn body for Hayabusa2 and its rovers to touch down.
  1. Davide Castelvecchi
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After inspecting the asteroid Ryugu for two months, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has revealed the sites where the Hayabusa2 spacecraft will touch down to collect a sample to bring back to Earth — and also where it will drop the first two of its four planned landing probes.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06046-4

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 10 September 2018: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said that Hayabusa2 carries two MINERVA II landers. In fact, it carries three.

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