The first ever samples from the asteroid you Gu could give scientists new insights into the early evolution of our solar system.

It's been years since we last saw Haya Busa to leave our planet in 2014.

The spacecraft launched from the Tanegashima Space Center while aboard the H two a rocket, its mission to study and sample a C type asteroid.

Hugo is one of the smallest objects ever visited by a spacecraft, but it's worth going to because see type asteroids are some of the most ancient objects in our solar system.

Scientists speculate that they were created during the violent beginnings of our solar system's formation and could also carry the building blocks of life.

Thes kinds of asteroids, though, are quite carbon rich, causing coal black services that actually make it very difficult to see and study from earth.

So when Hayabusa two arrived at you go in 2018, it was quite prepared to study the asteroid like never before.

This mission included not only the main spacecraft with remote sensing instruments but also a lander, small rovers, a sampling system and an impactor to create a small crater on the surface.

That's right.

Hayabusa two was equipped with a carry on impactor that consisted of a small box of explosives and copper.

In April 2019, that box was released and created an artificial crater that revealed preserved material that could contain compounds from roughly 4.5 billion years ago or even longer.

With this new crater in July 2019, Hayabusa two was the first spacecraft to ever collect that kind of subsurface sample.

But that wasn't even the first time Hayabusa two shot at the surface of you go.

In February 2019, the spacecraft fired a bullet like projectile into the surface, causing about 1/10 of a gram of material to be collected.

Hopefully, there's no way to know for sure until it returns.

But if the collection mission was successful, it would be the first time in history that the team returned pristine samples of a carbonaceous asteroid, and this mission is full of first for the team.

Remember the rovers and lander?

I mentioned Haya Busa to release them in 2018 to build a better understanding of the asteroid's surface.

It was the first spacecraft toe ever have done so.

The first twin rovers, called Minerva to one A and one B, were equipped with cameras, temperature sensors, an accelerometer and gyroscope to study the surface of the rock before the sampling missions.

And instead of rolling across you, Gu, they hopped.

Since the asteroids gravitational pull was so weak, the rovers used rotating motors to make jumps, which could last about 15 minutes each.

The final rover, Minerva, to failed upon deployment.

Now the lander named mascot didn't make us many hops, but was a special collaboration with the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, and the French space agency C N E s.

It was equipped with a camera system, magnetometer, an infrared spectrometer and a Radiometer.

Now you might be thinking, How did Jackson know how to prepare for all of this?

Well, the spacecraft obviously had a predecessor called, You guessed it haya Busa.

This was Jackson's first asteroid sampling mission to the asteroid Itokawa.

In 2005, it became the first mission to successfully land take off and returned samples back to Earth in 2010.

But as successful as that mission was, there were a lot of lessons to learn.

The lander that it sent to the surface drifted off into space.

The sampling system gathered only a fraction of what it was intended for, and Hayabusa broke apart during reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

But all these challenges are what made Haya Busa to that much better.

So when Hayabusa two flies by earth this December, it's sample capsule will have a fiery re entry into our atmosphere and make a parachute landing in the South Australian Outback known as the Woomera Range complex.

Once on the ground and located, the Jackson team will make preliminary analysis in Australia before flying the samples back to Japan for further study.

They'll have about a year to do their own research before it gets sent out internationally for everyone to take a glimpse at what could be the remnants of the early solar system.

And what about the Hayabusa two spacecraft?

Well, it's already scheduled for a new mission.

With its remaining fuel, the spacecraft will head to the asteroid targets 1998 26 2001, cc 21 as well a study the celestial glow that travels through the Zodiac constellations.

E think it goes without saying that Hayabusa two is a groundbreaking mission and we'll just have to wait and see how much more it can teach us about the solar system we call home Haya Busa two isn't the Onley sample return mission?

Oh, Cyrus Rex is not too far behind with its samples from the asteroid Bennu, which is set to return in 2023.

If you want to know more about that mission, check out this episode here.

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