On September 21st 2018, JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, announced that they have successfully landed two rovers on an asteroid. The two rovers which are named MINERVA-II1, were deployed by the Hyabusa2 spacecraft, which is in orbit around the asteroid, Ryugu. The Haybusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 and rendezvoused with the Ryugu asteroid in June of 2018.
MINERVA stands for Micro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid. The two rovers will not roll across the asteroid for they have no wheels. Instead, the two robots will hop around during their exploration of the asteroid's surface. A third lander and an impactor, as well as several other experiments will also be deployed during the mission. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft's mission is to probe the asteroid for 18 months before returning to Earth in 2020.
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