The 6-year original Mission of asteroid Ryugu has successfully finished. The JAXA Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned 5.4 grams of material from the surface of a primitive C-type asteroid, 162173 Ryugu, on December 6, 2020. The sample was found to be rich in organic molecules.
The Mission is now extended as Hayabusa 2 SHARP (Small Hazardous Asteroid Reconnaissance Probe) with planetary defense objective to other asteroids. The focus of SHARP is on very small asteroids, of size around 30 metres, whose impact probability is high, making them strategic objects of study for a very realistic planetary defense scenario.
The final rendezvous target for SHARP is in 2031, with the near-earth asteroid 1998 KY26 having a diameter between 20m-40m and a spin period as short as 10.7 minutes. As the spacecraft has only one target marker and one projectile left, collecting samples would not be possible. However, the target marker and the projectile could lead to interesting experiments.
There is also a planned flyby of asteroid (98943) 2001 CC21 in the year 2026. This would be a high-speed flyby at the closest distance of around 100 km. This distance could be risked if the asteroid does not pose a risk to the spacecraft, but very precise navigation would be needed. This asteroid is unique as its centrifugal forces are larger than gravity on the entire surface except in the polar region because of its fast rotation.
Santoshi Tanaka Department of Solar System Sciences at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): What if Ryugu hits Earth?