Chances are, you've heard of the Rosetta space mission by the ESA (European Space Agency) where they had sent a probe to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It's a success so far, and we've learned neat things about comets / space in general such as the confirmation that organic matter can exist on them (seeds of life). It came with a pretty price tag of about 1bn euros, that's nine zeros! But, this mission confirmed many scientific theories and also gave new insight to how the universe works, and most particularly that humans can now land on comets which is fantastic if you've ever seen the movie Armageddon. Perhaps Bruce Willis will be willing to save us if there is indeed a comet coming towards earth?It would seem that Japan has their own mission underway and making headlines. Initially the launch was scheduled for November 30th 2014 (1:23PM JST), but was delayed until December 3rd (two days later) due to icy clouds and other related bad weather. With a successful launch, Japan's probe named Hayabusa-2(Falcon-2) has already sent back signals to confirm its status and is on its way to probe and gather rock samples from a 540 meter wide (approx) C-Type asteroid dubbed (162173) 1999 JU₃.Hayabusa-2 is utilizing an ION Thruster which is an electric propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions. Ions are atoms that have an unequal amount of electrons to protons which ends up giving the atom an electric charge, so an ION Thruster would expel these ions which leads to propulsion. Unfortunately, ION Thrusters while they may be fast, they are terribly slow to accelerate due to their nature.The first Hayabusa mission landed on the asteroid (25143 Itokawa) and is classified as an S-Type, but what is an "S-Type"? The S in S-Type stands for Stone, therefor the asteroid is a "Stone-Type" which is the second most common type of Asteroid. These types of asteroids are mainly composed of Iron and magnesium-silicates. The Hayabusa mission returned a lot of valuable data, it was the first at returning samples from an asteroid, and the mission duration was slightly over 7-years.The second mission, Hayabusa-2 will be landing on a C-Type asteroid. Just as before, the initial letter represents a very simple word to give it meaning. Sorry Cookie Monster, C does not stand for Cookie in this instance, but rather Carbonaceous. These types of Asteroids are the most prevalent by current observations, populating about 75% of all known asteroids. Being able to probe for asteroid rocks has many benefits but first, how will this be accomplished?By late 2015, the solar-powered probe, Hayabusa-2 will use a Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) to detonate a bomb on the surface of the asteroid at a distance. Once it's safe to land, the probe will make its descent and land on the asteroid. After landing, it will be gathering various samples, and observe the asteroid using its on-board instruments. After roughly 18-months, it will leave the asteroid and is expected to return back to earth by around 2020.The purpose of these missions give a better insight about the universe, how Earth was formed, where we may have evolved from, better insights on disaster prevention scenarios, and second to most important of all, leading way to commercialized asteroid / comet mining. Earth has a lot of natural resources and we're edging closer to performing modern-day "alchemy" by turning iron into gold, but we'll be needing external resources to be able to survive as a whole. Asteroids and comets can provide us with rare and not-so-rare minerals, other planets could provide us with alternative energy such as Hydrogen-3 and so on. Apparently there's a very big Return on Investment for these missions as it's estimated that a 30-meter asteroid is worth 25-50bn USD.Presently, the US is engaging in many space programs from NASA to the private sector. Firefly Space Systems recently made the news, Virgin Galactic is still ironing out their recently bad PR, NASA awarded Musk's Space Exploration Technologies with a very big grant to develop a next generation spacecraft to carry cargo / human into space, and the ESA had just approved a new next generation rocket. I hate being hyperbolic but is this the moment we've all been waiting for as space enthusiasts? Is space becoming yet again a thing for the public to start caring about while astronauts look like awesome rockstars in space? One thing is for certain, Japan is back in space and heading towards an asteroid for some samples and that's very exciting indeed!

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