Using a Ka band high-gain antenna (32 kilobits per second), Hayabusa 2 can send and receive more than four times as much data as its predecessor.

Two solar array 'paddles' provide up to 2.9 kilowatts of power at a distance of one AU (93 million miles) from the sun.

The four ion engines use xenon propellant to push the spacecraft to cruising speeds of 2 kilometers per second, or 4,473 mph.

A detachable launcher, which takes a cue from military weapons designed to penetrate tank armor, dispatches from the mothership about 500 meters above the asteroid's surface.

At 100 meters, 10 kilograms of explosives turn a copper disk carried by the impactor into a giant bullet aimed at the asteroid.

The impact creates a crater 1 meter deep and 10 meters wide.

After the explosion, the mothership swoops in, hovering just above the crater. Its sampler arm fires tiny projectiles made of tantalum at 300 meters per second and collects whatever debris ricochets into its collection tube.