Congratulation Japan December 2 another space victory. Japan has successfully launched the second sample return mission to an asteroid, with a JAXA H-IIA rocket carrying the Hayabusa 2 probe into orbit on the first leg of its journey to the asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3. Launch occurred on schedule at 04:22 UTC on Wednesday from Pad 1 of the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Centre. Hayabusa 2 Mission: Based on the original Hayabusa spacecraft, which was launched in May 2003 on a mission to return samples from the asteroid (25143) Itokawa, Hayabusa 2 is a small, 590-kilogram (1,300 lb) spacecraft which was built by NEC Corporation. The spacecraft builds on JAXA’s experiences with Hayabusa, and its design aims to correct many of the flaws which affected its predecessor’s mission.Deployed by an M-V rocket in 2003, Hayabusa, which was also known as MUSES-C, suffered damage from a solar flare a few months after launch, reducing its ability to generate electricity and thereby impacting the power available for its ion propulsion system. Two years into its mission, and a few months before its arrival at the asteroid Itokawa, one of the spacecraft’s reaction wheels failed. On 12 September 2005, however, Hayabusa took up station 20 kilometres (12 miles, 11 nautical miles) from Itokawa. A second reaction wheel failed a month after its arrival. On 12 November 2005, Hayabusa approached to within 55 metres of the asteroid in order to deploy a lander, Minerva. The lander was released later than had been planned, after Hayabusa had begun to back away from the surface, and as a result Minerva drifted off into space. A week later JAXA attempted to land Hayabusa itself on the asteroid to collect a surface sample before again backing away.Although the attempt did result in Hayabusa reaching the surface and collecting a small amount of matter from Itokawa, the sampling system failed to function. Two days after the initial landing a second attempt was made but again the sampler failed to operate. Around the time of the second landing Hayabusa’s reaction control system developed a problem, affecting JAXA’s ability to control its attitude. Attempts to manoeuvre the probe were taking it out of solar alignment and resulting in a loss of power. Attempts to recover control of the spacecraft continued until early December, when all communication was lost.AXA reestablished contact with Hayabusa in late January 2006, however by the time it was back under control the spacecraft had missed its departure window for returning to Earth, necessitating that it remain in the proximity of Itokawa until April 2007. Despite further problems with its ion engines during the return trip to Earth, Hayabusa reached Earth on 13 June 2010. Its return capsule, which separated from the main spacecraft three hours before reentry, was successfully recovered on Australia’s Woomera Test Range. Hayabusa itself was destroyed during reentry. our source is NASA spaceflight
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 09:46:30 +0000
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