Chapter 1
Wheels on red dust
Chapter 2
Voyagers into the deep dark
Chapter 3
Asteroid hunters and sample snatchers
Chapter 4
The future of robotic minds
YOUR GOAL
Master of Robots in outer space
Ch 3 · Asteroid hunters and sample snatchers
futura Asteroid hunters and sample snatchers
To asteroids far, the robots flew, Bringing cosmic samples, fresh and new!
futura An automated mission landed on the Moon, drilled for samples, and launched them back to Earth.
futura Japanese scientists shot a copper cannonball at an asteroid to expose pristine underground materials.
BETA
futura Program your scout's mission to master how robots explore the cosmos independently.
Fun Fact
Hopping on asteroids: Because asteroid Ryugu has almost no gravity, the MINERVA-II rovers didn't use wheels; they hopped using internal swinging weights.
Glossary
asteroid (noun)
A small rocky body that orbits the sun. In 2023, NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe successfully returned a sample from the asteroid Bennu to Earth.
A small rocky body that orbits the sun. In 2023, NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe successfully returned a sample from the asteroid Bennu to Earth.
Quiz
How much lunar soil did China's Chang'e 5 mission successfully return to Earth in 2020?
Quiz
What did the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft use to blow dust and pebbles into its collector head during its brief contact with Bennu?
Quiz
Which country's space agency created a crater on asteroid Ryugu by shooting it with a copper explosive?
Quiz
How did the tiny MINERVA-II rovers move across the surface of asteroid Ryugu in 2018?
Quiz
Where did the capsule containing samples of asteroid Bennu land when it returned to Earth in 2023?
Quiz
What is the name of the metal-rich asteroid that NASA sent a probe to explore in late 2023?