[meteorite-list] Hayabusa Arrives at Itokawa, Starts Hovering Operations

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 15 11:42:02 2005
Message-ID: <200509151540.j8FFepm01838_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2005/09/20050914_hayabusa_e.html

Hayabusa arrives at Itokawa, starts hovering operations
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
September 14, 2005

The Hayabusa spacecraft successfully arrived at its target, the near
Earth asteroid Itokawa (25143), at 01:00 UTC(10:00 JST) on September
12th. Hayabusa performed a short chemical thruster burn to slow its
asteroid-relative speed by 7 centimeters per second to settle into the
Gate Position, defined at a distance of 20 kilometers from Itokawa
towards the Earth. Hayabusa is now hovering with respect to Itokawa and
the project has made a great step toward its scientific observations of
the asteroid. Hayabusa's main purpose is to demonstrate key technologies
required for future planetary exploration. Hayabusa was launched in May
2003. In May 2004, the spacecraft performed an Earth gravity assist
while using ion engine propulsion, this was the first time a spacecraft
has flown such a powered flyby.

During its approach to rendezvous, the visible imager carried by
Hayabusa succeeded in taking multi-band filter photographs of Itokawa,
as the asteroid rotated. This press release contains the resulting
synthesized pseudo-color image and a series of rotation pictures of
Itokawa. In the images, sunlight illuminates the asteroid from behind
the camera, making the terrain features appear more subdued. Most of the
key images obtained by the mission to date are available on the JAXA
main web-site (http://www.jaxa.jp) and the ISAS (Institute of Space and
Astronautical Science) main web-site (http://www.isas.jaxa.jp).

The Hayabusa spacecraft is in good health and all its scientific
instruments (consisting of a visible imager, a near infra-red and X-ray
spectrometer and a laser altimeter) are functioning normally and have
started their calibration observations. Hayabusa will stay at the
asteroid until the end of November and plans to perform detailed remote
sensing and mapping of the asteroid, followed by an attempt to collect
surface samples of Itokawa. The project goals are then to return the
sample back to Earth in 2007. Updated information and future press
releases about the mission will be available at the JAXA and ISAS
web-sites.

The Hayabusa project is a collaborative mission with participation by
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United
States. The Hayabusa project expresses its appreciation to NASA for its
support of the mission.

Images taken by AMICA, the Hayabusa visible imager.

September 11th, 09:24 (UTC)(18:24 JST), at 25 kilometers distance from
Itokawa.
Field of view: 2 degrees by 2 degrees each.
Left: v (540nm) band monochrome.
Right: b (420nm), v (540nm), w (700nm) bands.
These are synthesized to a BVR image with equal weighting.


A Rotation sequence observed on September 10th and 11th. (v-band)

The rotation period is about 12 hours. The rotation pole points downward
in the images.

About:
    Asteroid Sample-return Spacecraft "HAYABUSA" (MUSES-C)
<http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hayabusa/index.shtml>

For inquiries:
Public Affairs Department, JAXA
Tel: +81-3-6266-6413 through to -6416
Received on Thu 15 Sep 2005 11:40:51 AM PDT