Stunning
imagery is being returned by Japan's Hayabusa space probe as it draws closer to
its celestial target: asteroid Itokawa.
Now
just a few miles distant from the space rock, the spacecraft is poised for an
historic attempt to collect and return a specimen to Earth from such an object.
Imagery from Hayabusa is being used by Japanese scientists to target potential
touchdown sites on the rocky world.
Hayabusa
was rocketed into space from Japan's Kagoshima Space Center on May 9, 2003 and
is a project of that country's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
(ISAS), a space science research division arm of the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Hayabusa arrived at its exploration target, near Earth asteroid Itokawa, on
September 12, propelled there via ion engines and an Earth swing-by to put the
probe on a heading toward Itokawa.
First rehearsal, then for real
JAXA
space engineers are readying Hayabusa for a November 4 "rehearsal descent" - a
practice run that is expected to verify procedures for a first touchdown of the
probe on the asteroid on November 12. A second touchdown of the craft is slated
for November 25.
Ground
controllers are carefully monitoring onboard fuel reserves to attempt the
historic landings.
In
addition, loss of two of Hayabusa's reaction wheels - needed to help delicately
maneuver the spacecraft - spurred new control strategies to be devised by
ground control engineers.
Along
with sampling duties, Hayabusa will dispatch a tiny robot onto the space rock
that hops about while relaying images.
Tiny lander
The
ultra-small 1.3 pound (591 grams) device lander is dubbed MINERVA - short for
MIcro/Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid. This small hopping robot
lander totes along a set of color cameras. Two of the tiny cameras can produce
stereo images of the surface conditions at the landing area of MINERVA. A third
camera is mounted on the robot to scan more distant regions of the asteroid's
surface and can operate while the lander moves from spot to spot.
Hayabusa
is a remote sensing mission, plus a lander and a sample return effort. With its
cache of asteroid specimens, Hayabusa's return capsule would return to Earth in
June 2007, headed for a parachute deployment and landing in the desert of Woomera, Australia.
The
samples of Itokawa brought back to Earth by Hayabusa could provide the first
direct evidence of the link between asteroids and meteorites, Japanese space
scientists point out.
advertisement
