[meteorite-list] Japan Contacts Hayabusa

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Mar 7 13:09:07 2006
Message-ID: <200603071807.k27I7LP03952_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060307/ap_on_sc/japan_asteroid

Japan Contacts Asteroid Probe
Yahoo News
March 7, 2006

TOKYO - Japan's space agency said Tuesday it had re-established partial
contact with a problem-plagued probe sent to collect samples from an
asteroid, but a fuel leak could cut communications again.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it had established
sufficient contact with the Hayabusa probe to assess its condition and
position.

JAXA has been gradually restoring communications with Hayabusa since
January, after a thruster malfunction the previous month put the probe
into a spin that caused a break in contact, the agency said in a statement.

It said it now has learned that a fuel leak that also occurred in early
December apparently caused Hayabusa to lose most of the fuel for the
chemical engine controlling its positioning.

The agency plans to use solar batteries to charge up an ion engine in
order to control the probe's attitude and keep it properly oriented to
maintain communications with Earth, but contact could be lost again if
the operation fails, it said.

Launched in May 2003, Hayabusa's mission was to land on the asteroid
Itokawa and collect samples to bring back to Earth. However, JAXA
experienced a series of problems with the probe as it neared its
destination.

JAXA lost contact with Hayabusa during a faulty touchdown in November
and did not even realize the probe had landed until days later ??? long
after it lifted off the asteroid.

Hayabusa made a second landing days later but experienced trouble with
its thruster after takeoff, forcing JAXA to shut down the probe's engines.

In addition, data from the probe did not show that it had fired a metal
projectile onto the asteroid's surface during landing, as previously
believed. The probe was to have collected dust particles shot up by the
projectile's impact.

If Hayabusa does return to Earth with extraterrestrial material, it
would be the first successful mission to bring back asteroid samples
from space, JAXA said. A 2001

NASA probe of the asteroid Eros did not collect surface samples.
Received on Tue 07 Mar 2006 01:07:21 PM PST