Japan’s Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Drops Off Its Last Robot on Asteroid Ryugu www.extremetech.com

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has been hanging around the asteroid Ryugu for more than a year, dropping off robots and blasting the surface with metal slugs.
The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) hopes to bring Hayabusa2 and its precious cargo of asteroid samples home soon, but first, there’s just one more robot to deploy.
Hayabusa2 carried several robots with it to Ryugu, and JAXA confirms the spacecraft released its final robotic explorer last night.
Hayabusa2 has completed its primary mission, using tantalum slugs to launch material from the surface of Ryugu into its sample collection compartment.
Even if Minerva-II2 doesn’t work, Hayabusa2 can set course for Earth in the coming weeks with a wealth of data about Ryugu.