Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has lowered two small rovers onto an asteroid in an epic mission to study the distant space rock. Preparations have been underway for the landing since the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) spacecraft reached the “dumpling-shaped” asteroid in June. The solar-powered rovers' voltage plunged as night fell on Ryugu, a sign that they are on the asteroid, said Hayabusa project team spokesman Takashi Kubota. The rovers move by "hopping" up to 15 meters at a time because the extremely weak gravity on the asteroid makes rolling difficult. Despite being dogged with problems, the mission collected a number of asteroid samples, which returned to Earth with Hayabusa in June 2010.

Source: Fox News September 21, 2018 16:46 UTC