05 April 2019
Hayabusa2 probe 'bombs' asteroid to create a crater
... of day thanks to the explosive device that the spacecraft dropped. The explosive device, called the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI), is a 14 kilogram conical container packed with plastic explosive. It was intended to carve out a 10 metre-wide hole...
January 2019
Visiting an asteroid to find out how life began
...was planning to make at least one landing to gather material to return to Earth and also drop a small carry-on impactor (SCI) to generate an artificial crater to expose subsurface material. In August, the international science team for the spacecraft...
27 June 2018
Hayabusa2 reaches Ryugu after a 42 month journey
...-sized lander called MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) to help identify its chemical composition and a Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) designed to blow a hole in the asteroid surface. The explosion is to remove the asteroid’s weathered surface and...
