The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Japanese Space Activities Commission has authorised the continuation of development work on the successor of the sample-return probe, Hayabusa.
A new rocket, Epilson, has also been approved by the board, according to Softpedia.
In June 2010, the Hayabusa space probe returned after a visit to the near-Earth object (NEO) Itokawa.
The new spacecraft is expected to be launched by 2014 for a journey towards a carbon-rich asteroid, scheduled to land on one around 2018.
During the touch-and-go operation, the Hayabusa 2 probe will collect additional samples, which may help geologists and planetary scientists gain more clues as to how the solar system formed and evolved.
Epsilon is the second goal of the Japanese space programme. It is expected to replace the M-5 rocket, which flew between 1997 and 2006.
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