[meteorite-list] Hayabusa Returns - Asteroid secrets come down to earth

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:33:39 +1000
Message-ID: <14D21FF3391B4C30A3C94DD3E351FC0E_at_JeffPC>

Hi all,

This first report came through from the Sydney Morning Herald about 20 mins
ago.

Cheers,

Jeff



http://www.smh.com.au/national/asteroid-secrets-come-down-to-earth-20100613-y64j.html

Asteroid secrets come down to earth DEBORAH SMITH SCIENCE EDITOR

June 14, 2010

THE Falcon became a fiery phoenix last night.

After a seven-year odyssey in space, the unmanned Japanese spacecraft
Hayabusa, or Falcon, burnt up in the atmosphere, making it the first probe
to land on an asteroid and return to Earth.

But its legacy could live on, perhaps helping protect the planet from
asteroid impacts, if dust from the space rock it visited can be retrieved
from the spacecraft's cargo capsule.

Advertisement: Story continues belowThe basketball-sized cargo capsule was
released from the spacecraft just before 9pm and was set to land by
parachute at Woomera Prohibited Area about midnight last night. In
preparation for the touch down, the Stuart Highway was blocked from just
south of Coober Pedy to the north of Glendambo.

Hayabusa was launched in May 2003 and touched down twice in November 2005 on
Itokawa, a 540-metre long asteroid about 300 million kilometres away, twice
as far as the Sun.

Fuel leakages, engine breakdowns and loss of communication delayed its
return by three years. But the Japanese team was able to combine parts still
working on two engines to bring the crippled craft home.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry, Richard Marles,
said it was a huge technological achievement. ''If you've got any affection
for the little Aussie battler, you've got to love the Hayabusa spacecraft.''

The associate executive director of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration
Agency, Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, said yesterday he was nervous but excited about
the return. ''Today is the greatest moment for us.''

Japanese, NASA and Australian scientists flying in a specially equipped
Douglas DC-8 aircraft were hoping to capture pictures and make measurements
of the re-entry, with the aim of designing better heat shields for future
space probes.

With the capsule travelling at more than 12 kilometres a second on re-entry,
its carbon heat shield would have experienced temperatures of more than 2800
degrees, while the gas surrounding the capsule would have been hotter than
the surface of the Sun, at about 7200 degrees.

The Japanese team will check on the capsule's condition this morning and
Aboriginal landowners will be among the first to see it.

Understanding asteroids will be necessary if we need to deflect one coming
our way.
Received on Sun 13 Jun 2010 10:33:39 AM PDT