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A Japanese space probe the size of a fridge will launch tomorrow on a six-year mission to mine an asteroid in the hunt for clues about the birth of the solar system.
Hayabusa2 had been set to blast off aboard Japan's main H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan yesterday.
But thick cloud meant scientists had to postpone the launch, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. The 31 billion yen (HK$2 billion) project is sending a probe towards the 1999 JU3 asteroid in deep space, just weeks after a European spacecraft's historic landing on a comet captivated the world.
It will blast a crater in the asteroid to collect virgin materials unexposed to millennia of solar wind and radiation, in the hope of answering some fundamental questions about life and the universe.
"The asteroid is carbonaceous and we may find organic matter and water - the stuff of life," project leader Hitoshi Kuninaka said
Analysing the extraterrestrial materials could help shed light on the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago and offer clues about what gave rise to life on earth, he said.
Hayabusa2 is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018 and will spend about 18 months studying the surface. It will also drop tiny MINERVA-II rover robots as well as a French-German landing package named Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout for surface observation.
In a galactic first, Hayabusa2 will drop an "impactor" that will explode above the asteroid's surface and fire a metal bullet into the crust at a speed of 7,200km/h - six times the speed of sound on earth.
The bullet is expected to create a small crater that will enable the probe to collect material from the asteroid.
"The impactor is made fully with Japanese technologies that are so advanced you would think they are out of this world," said Kuninaka.
The Hayabusa2 mission blasts off just weeks after the European Space Agency succeeded in making mankind's first-ever landing on a comet.
Scientists said initial data sent from the robot lab Philae showed traces of organic molecules and a comet surface much harder than imagined.
Philae, released from its mothership Rosetta, has gone into hibernation on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, having used its onboard battery power after 60 hours of prodding and probing. If the Hayabusa2 mission goes well, pristine asteroid samples will be returned to earth in late 2020. The probe is the successor to JAXA's first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa - the Japanese term for falcon - which returned to earth in 2010 with dust samples after a trouble-plagued seven-year mission.


Japanese probe Hayabusa2 ready to launch on mission to mine an asteroid

An artist's impression of Hayabusa2 probe. It will reach the asteroid in mid 2018. Photo: Akihiro Ikeshita Images

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Six-year mission will hunt for clues about the birth of the solar system


A Japanese space probe the size of a fridge will launch tomorrow on a six-year mission to mine an asteroid in the hunt for clues about the birth of the solar system.
