Japanese spacecraft carrying asteroid soil samples nears home

Hopefully they find something really wild. After all it's still 2020, so maybe they will.

Quite a complicated mission. Hoping for a safe landing and that it gets the press it deserves.

Safe journey back home Hayabusa2

I hope they find something cool in that dirt.

Welcome back! It's been almost forgotten, though...

Being 2020 and all, I sure hope they didn't bring back some really scary sci-fi movie plot of an 'organism' with those asteroid soil samples... Puts down the TV remote and goes to make lunch, shaking head and muttering to himself "you watch waaaaaay too much sci-fi horror crap, as if 2020 could get any worse". Alexa can be heard in the background letting out a soft little nervous laugh.

2 weeks quarantine please.

What's the shelf life on a really bad idea. All samples should be kept off-world and confined to the space station...

Looking forward to reading about the results of the mission. As for the danger of an alien life form coming along for the ride, it seems unlikely. Earth is bombarded with meteorites (pieces of asteroids and comets) all the time, and look at how rare viruses are here. Oooops, maybe that logic is flawed.

Andromeda Strain 2020

Please slove earth problems first.

Please slove earth problems first.

For mankind to perpetuate itself it must become a multi-planet species. Regardless of what man does or doesn't do, the Earth will eventually be destroyed by the Sun. While the Sun is in its Main Phase now it will slowly consume hydrogen and fuse this into helium. As it does so it will gradually heat up until the Earth is so hot water will no longer be able to exist. Further into the future the Sun will have consumed all of its hydrogen and balloon into a Red Giant. At that point the Sun will expand in size beyond Earths orbit and will incinerate all of the inner planets. Eventually the Sun will throw a nebula and decline rapidly into a white dwarf. None of this is even remotely survivable from Earth. For mankind to survive it must master space travel and find more hospitable planets to inhabit. This mission is about gaining knowledge, the first itty-bitty little baby steps man must take to understand the universe in which we exist, master space travel and become that multi-planet species.

I just want H3 rocket to be in service soon, Go Japan.

Freddy FreewayNov. 28  06:51 am JST

Hopefully they find something really wild. After all it's still 2020, so maybe they will.

Like maybe some minerals that could lead to a cure for CoVid-19! We can hope.

Let's not forget, America's NASA also has a robot probe bringing back rock samples from the asteroid Bennu. That spacecraft dug up more than it can store up!