Japan's Hayabusa
spacecraft is on track to attempt a sampling of asteroid Itokawa on November
19.
In
a rescheduled practice run on November 9, the craft has approached within 230
feet (70 meters) of the asteroid during a descent test that verified the
probe's guidance and navigation functions.
Engineers
handling the Hayabusa spacecraft have clarified the issues that led to the
cancellation of a November 4 landing rehearsal. An onboard navigation computer
detected anomalous information during the practice run. The problem resulted in
an abort command being transmitted to the probe by Earth controllers, thereby
stopping the rehearsal. Subsequently, the spacecraft fired its chemical engines
and started ascent, backing away from the asteroid.
Mission
officials are now prepared to carry out a landing at the "Muses Sea" site, performing sampling tasks on both November 19 and another touchdown on November 25,
according to the web site of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
(ISAS), a space science research division arm of the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Return samples
Hayabusa
is now ready for its historic attempt to gather and return asteroid specimens
to Earth.
Imagery
taken by Hayabusa has been used to target the craft to a touchdown location on
asteroid Itokawa. One newly released image shows the shadow of the spacecraft
cast upon the asteroid's surface.
Japan's Hayabusa roared
off into space from Japan's Kagoshima Space Center on May 9, 2003. The spacecraft
arrived at its asteroid target on September 12 of this year.
Not
only is Hayabusa equipped to collect samples of the asteroid for return to
Earth. A tiny robot will hop about Itokawa and relay pictures from the space
rock's surface.
Plans
call for the probe's return capsule carrying asteroid specimens to return to
Earth in June 2007, landing by parachute in a remote desert spot in Woomera, Australia.
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