MINERVA (MIcro-Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid) are a series of rovers developed by the Japanese space agency JAXA for the purpose of exploring asteroid surfaces. The first MINERVA was part of the Hayabusa mission, and MINERVA-II are a series of three rovers for Hayabusa2. On 12 November 2005, MINERVA rover was deployed from Hayabusa orbiter with aim to land on asteroid 25143 Itokawa. However, the landing failed as MINERVA missed the asteroid and ended up on heliocentric orbit. On 21 September 2018, first two MINERVA-II rovers successfully landed on asteroid 162173 Ryugu.[1] The third MINERVA-II rover malfunctioned before deployment from the Hayabusa2 orbiter, but it was released anyway on 2 October 2019 to perform gravitational measurements before impacting the asteroid a few days later.