If that's not enough photos for you, check out this gallery from the Asahi Shimbun website, or a video from Nikkei.com.

And another photographer, Hiromitsu Uesaka, has tweeted his gallery of images. Enjoy: wide view from observation deck - closeup from observation deck - low perspective on ion engine face - side view of sample return capsule face - side view of ion engine face - closeup on ion engines - closeup on sample return capsule face - closeup on sample return capsule - closeup on star trackers - another wide view from observation deck - another close view from observation deck - even closer view from observation deck (focus on DCAM3) - side view with engineer for scale

I don't pay too much attention to missions until they're ready for launch. So today is really the first time I've read much about Hayabusa2, and I am just amazed by its audaciousness. Its profile is much like its predecessor's: it'll rendezvous with an asteroid, collect a sample, and return to Earth. But they plan to do so much more at the asteroid than Hayabusa (which I suppose I now need to refer to retroactively as Hayabusa 1) did. Hayabusa2 will deploy one of five target markers that it will use to guide itself into landing and collecting a sample. It will deploy a European-built lander named MASCOT and three (count them, three) "rovers" called MINERVA-II. I put "rovers" in quotes because I think these are not wheeled rovers but rather bouncy hoppers like Hayabusa1's MINERVA (which was deployed but sadly missed Itokawa). Then it will do an experiment like Deep Impact's, releasing an impactor to make a crater on the asteroid's surface. But because Hayabusa2's impactor won't have much kinetic energy, they made it explosive. The mothership will have to hide in the shadow of the asteorid as the explosion happens, so they have also added the deployable DCAM3 to try to get a view of the crater's formation.

Here's a cool video summarizing just the sampling part of the mission: