Sharp Blue: Asteroid sample return mission

Yesterday, the Japanese space agency ISAS launched the MUSES-C spacecraft from the Kagoshima Space Centre. The probe will rendezvous with the asteroid 1998 SF36 and then return a sample of asteroidal material to Earth. The sample return capsule will land at Woomera (the site of the old British spaceport) in Australia in 2007. This is clearly a very important mission, as understanding asteroids will be a vital first step towards the full industrialisation of space.