The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) is poised to become the first group to land a robotic spacecraft on an asteroid, collect samples, and then return to Earth.
On September 12th, two years and four months after launch, the asteroid exploration probe, "Hayabusa", fired it's chemical rockets and slowed to a stop a mere 20km away from asteroid Itokawa, named after the late Dr. Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japan's space development program.
Images acquired by the Hayabusa show the rough and rocky surface of the Itokawa. The Hayabusa will carry out a scientific probe including sample collections and topological investigations over the next two months.
This picture was taken at 8:35 am, 12 Sep (JST) just before the settlement by the visible imager AMICA. The photo shows contrast of rocky and hilly region and smooth area, which may suggest the origin of this asteroid. This feature may be a key to consider Itokawa's origin and evolution.
Mission Overview
Hayabusa's mission: to bring back samples from an asteroid and investigate the mysteries of the birth of the solar system.
HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) has been developed to investigate asteroids. Asteroids are celestial bodies that are smaller than planets but are part of the solar system. HAYABUSA was launched on May 9th, 2003. HAYABUSA is traveling through space using an ion engine. It will orbit the asteroid, land on it, and bring back a sample from its surface.
Until now, the only extraterrestrial celestial body from which we have gathered samples is the Moon. But since the matter that comprises large bodies such as the planets and the Moon has changed over time due to thermal processes, these bodies cannot provide us with a pristine record of the solar system.
Asteroids, on the other hand, are believed to be small enough to have preserved the state of the early solar system and are sometimes referred to as celestial fossils. A soil sample from an asteroid can give us clues about the raw materials that made up planets and asteroids in their formative years, and about the state of the inside of a solar nebula around the time of the birth of the planets.
Article comments
1 - Victor Plenty
Didn't NASA already have great success with ion propulsion on their Deep Space One probe a few years back?
Either way, this is a very cool mission. Landing on asteroids and returning to Earth with payloads is a skill with the potential to open up vast mineral resources for human use.
One more minor quibble before I leave off here. Wouldn't it be more technically accurate to say the probe matched orbits with the asteroid, rather than "slowed to a stop?"
2 - Duane
You have to believe in relativity, Victor.
3 - Victor Plenty
Relativity is clearer when stated, rather than implied.
4 - Bennett
Victor and Duane -
Yeah, matching orbital velocity or trajectory would have been a more accurate way of putting it. I'm not sure what was going on when I wrote this piece, obviously something pretty darned distracting...
It is a most valid mision for JAXA. I'm looking forward to reading updates in the weeks ahead.
Cheers!
5 - foe
update.