[meteorite-list] Hayabusa Update - January 25, 2007

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000839/

Hayabusa update
By Emily Lakdawalla
The Planetary Society Weblog
January 25, 2007

With the help of Hideo Fukumori at JSpace, I've received 
an update on the status of Hayabusa, the Japanese mission 
to retrieve a sample from an asteroid, from the Japanese 
science journalist Shin-ya Matsuura. Matsuura said 
(translated from the Japanese by Fukumori):

   Preparation for the return trip is currently under way. 
   From what I heard, recharging the damaged battery, 
   which has been considered to be the most risky part, 
   is almost done. The next critical step will be 
   closing the sample capsule using power supply 
   from recharged battery. Successful execution of 
   that step will move Hayabusa a lot closer to the 
   return trip to the Earth. Considering that the return 
   trip operation should be started in February, I guess 
   they will attempt to close sample capsule by the end 
   of this month (January) and make a press release. Or, 
   Prof. Kawaguchi might hold a press conference in February 
   to announce the start of return operation instead.

   They are planning to achieve 3-axis stabilization with 
   the remaining Z-axis wheel. Attitude control will be 
   done with gimbal movement of ion engine and/or release 
   of xenon gas. That means attitude control will not be 
   very precise and "the trajectory of return trip is 
   expected to be fairly jagged (Prof Kuninaka, JAXA)".