Space debris is a growing threat to satellites and missions, with over 14,000 pieces already cluttering low-Earth orbit. To address this, Kazunori Takahashi, a researcher at Tohoku University in Japan ...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aims to continue the mission by employing usable parts of two other failed ion engines on Hayabusa2.

mileage on the engine increases. That wisdom does not hold true for NASA’s ion engine, whose odometer continues to spin to the delight of its owners. This little engine that could has more than made ...

On December 6, 2020, Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe dropped off samples from asteroid Ryugu in the Australian outback before beginning a second journey toward a smaller space rock. The spacecraft’s extended ...

Sending an object to another star is still the stuff of science fiction. But some concrete missions could get us at least part way there. These "interstellar precursor missions" include a trip to the ...

CLEVELAND — A small robotic surveyor arrives to explore a near-Earth asteroid. Another robotic spacecraft is returning to Earth with a pristine comet surface sample. Meanwhile, a robotic explorer is ...

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Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe has suffered a malfunction in the last of its working ion engines, an official of the country's ...