[meteorite-list] Hayabusa Attempts Asteroid Sample Collection, But Touchdown Unconfirmed

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Nov 20 00:24:52 2005
Message-ID: <200511200523.jAK5NO405570_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/WorldNews/w111961A.htm

Japan space probe nears asteroid but touchdown still unconfirmed
Associated Press
November 19, 2005

TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese research probe moved within metres of an
asteroid Sunday but hours later officials were still analyzing its data
and it remained unclear whether it had successfully landed to collect
surface samples, Japan's space agency said.

The Hayabusa probe, which botched a rehearsal earlier this month, is on
a mission to collect samples from the asteroid during a brief landing
and then bring them back to Earth.

Hayabusa moved to 40 metres above the potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa and
then dropped a small ball-shaped telemeter as a touchdown target before
descending further to 17 metres - the last point at which JAXA has
confirmed its location, JAXA spokesman Tatsuo Oshima said.

"We are able to exchange signals with Hayabusa, so we will be able to
confirm the results as soon as we go over more data and analyze it,"
Oshima said.

A rehearsal was aborted earlier this month when the spacecraft had
trouble finding a landing spot and a small robotic lander deployed from
the probe was lost. Hayabusa also had an earlier problem with one of its
three gyroscopes which was later repaired.

Hayabusa was launched in May 2003 and has until early December before it
must leave orbit and begin its 290-million-kilometre journey home. It is
expected to return to Earth and land in the Australian Outback in June
2007.

The asteroid is named after Hideo Itokawa, father of rocket science in
Japan, and is orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. It is 690 metres
long and 300 metres wide and has a gravitational pull of only
one-one-hundred-thousandth of Earth's, which makes landing a probe
difficult.

Japan was the fourth country to launch a satellite, in 1972, and
announced earlier this year a major project to send its first astronauts
into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

Examining asteroid samples is expected to help unlock secrets of how
celestial bodies were formed because their surfaces are believed to have
remained relatively unchanged over the eons, unlike those of larger
bodies such the planets or moons, JAXA said.

A NASA probe collected data for two weeks from the Manhattan-sized
asteroid Eros in 2001 but did not return with samples.
Received on Sun 20 Nov 2005 12:23:23 AM PST