[meteorite-list] Hayabusa Snatches First Samples From Asteroid

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn8380-spacecraft-snatches-first-samples-from-asteroid.html

Spacecraft snatches first samples from asteroid 
Damian Carrington 
New Scientist
November 26, 2005

The Hayabusa spaceprobe has snatched samples from the asteroid Itokawa, 
according to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The six-metre probe touched down at 0707 Japanese time (2207 GMT Friday) and 
its computer system shot a metal ball into the asteroid to drive up material 
for collection. The operation went "without failure," said JAXA official 
Yasunori Matoba, and the craft then took off again.

The Hayabusa team will not know for sure whether it picked up surface 
material until the craft returns to Earth in 2007, after a two billion 
kilometres journey, but they are confident it worked. 

"The project team members were very delighted to have seen all the procedures 
of collecting samples apparently ended without any problem," said project 
manager Junichiro Kawaguchi. "We have overcome the biggest challenge in the 
project."

Dogged by misfortune

If so, it will be the first time samples have been taken from an asteroid 
and a welcome success for a mission dogged by misfortune to date.

The first touchdown on Itokawa, last Sunday, ended in failure when the metal 
pellet failed to fire. However, there is a chance that some dust may have 
been dislodged and collected during this manoeuvre by the craft bouncing on 
the surface.

On 12 November, Hayabusa lost contact with a small robotic rover - called 
Minerva - that was designed to hop around the surface of the asteroid 
capturing images and taking temperature readings. Mission controllers b
elieve Minerva missed the asteroid entirely and drifted off into space.

And on 4 November, a practice descent was aborted when the probe sent an 
"anomalous signal" back to mission control. Finally, two of its three 
stabilising reaction wheels failed on 31 July and 3 October 2005, 
respectively.

Moving target

But the mission is far from simple. Landing on a flat targeted site on 
Itokawa is tough because the potato-shaped asteroid - 540 by 270 metres - 
is revolving. It also is small and therefore has very low gravity, meaning 
the craft is not gently pulled towards the object.

Hayabusa was launched in May 2003 with a budget of 12.7 billion yen ($100 
million dollars) and is scheduled to return to Earth in June 2007. Once 
near Earth, the capsule containing the asteroid samples will detach from 
the probe and land in the Australian desert.

The asteroid was formed 4.6 billion years ago at the same time as the solar 
system and represent geological "fossils" from that time. The samples could 
also provide information about the composition and structure of asteroids 
which would be vital for any future plan to deflect a celestial object on 
a collision course with Earth.