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Japan's Hayabusa Spacecraft Lands Successfully on Asteroid
Space.com ^ | 11/23/2005 | Chisaki Watanabe

Posted on 11/23/2005 7:26:09 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's space agency said Wednesday its spacecraft had successfully touched down on an asteroid 180 million miles from Earth despite an earlier announcement that it had failed.

On Sunday, JAXA officials had said the Hayabusa probe, on a mission to land on the asteroid named Itokawa, collect material, then bring it back to Earth, failed to touch down after maneuvering within yards of the surface.

However, the agency said Wednesday that data confirmed that Hayabusa had landed on the surface Sunday for a half-hour, although it failed to collect material.

JAXA officials had said earlier that Hayabusa dropped a small object as a touchdown target from 130 feet above the asteroid and then descended to 56 feet from the surface, at which point ground control lost contact with the probe for about three hours.

But after analyzing data, the agency said the probe landed on the asteroid within about 99 feet of the initial landing target.

The agency officials were still analyzing the data and will decide by Thursday whether to conduct a second landing attempt Friday, according to Seiji Koyama, a spokesman for the space agency.

The mission has been troubled by a series of glitches.

A landing rehearsal earlier this month was aborted when the probe had trouble finding a site, and a small robotic lander that deployed from the probe was lost. Hayabusa also suffered a problem with one of its three gyroscopes, but it has since been repaired.

Hayabusa was launched in May 2003 and has until early December before it must leave orbit and begin its long journey home. It is expected to return to Earth and land in the Australian Outback in June 2007.

The asteroid is named after Hideo Itokawa, the father of rocket science in Japan, and is orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. It is 2,300 feet long and 1,000 feet wide.

Examining asteroid samples is expected to help unlock secrets of how celestial bodies were formed because their surfaces are believed to have remained relatively unchanged over the eons, unlike those of larger bodies such the planets or moons, JAXA said.

A NASA probe collected data for two weeks from the Manhattan-sized asteroid Eros in 2001, but did not return with samples.


TOPICS: Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asteroid; asteroiditokawa; catastrophism; hayabusa; itokawa; japan; space
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Yeah, it's weird how these things can be dead in the water, then they suddenly announce, "Repairs were made and we're going again." Weird how they make repairs from 180 million miles away.

Maybe they bought the 'Express On-site Service' extended maintenance contract.

21 posted on 11/23/2005 8:05:20 AM PST by Antonello
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Why land on it when you can blow it up?

Deep Impact

22 posted on 11/23/2005 8:12:01 AM PST by 14erClimb
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Holy Moley! They sent a motorcycle into space? I knew them Suzukis were fast but...................................
23 posted on 11/23/2005 8:12:33 AM PST by Long Distance Rider
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

I always like the way the Chinese call their spacecraft "Divine Shinzou IV", or "Holy Imperious Quang III", or some such. They're always so grandiose. Besides, they have no space program, they just buy Russian premade ships and such. I could buy a russian ship and put my grandma in it. Big whoop.


24 posted on 11/23/2005 8:19:44 AM PST by emiller
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To: tallhappy
"Asteroid mining will be very lucrative."

i doubt it :-) the cost of mining and returning said minerals to earth would be counter productive and cost more than the minerals are worth here on Earth

25 posted on 11/23/2005 8:22:29 AM PST by Kelly_2000 ( (Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch))
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To: Kelly_2000
i doubt it :-) the cost of mining and returning said minerals to earth would be counter productive and cost more than the minerals are worth here on Earth

That's obviously true, but based on previous threads people have this vast emotional attachment to the idea that mining asteroids will be economically viable.

26 posted on 11/23/2005 8:42:58 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: Kelly_2000; tallhappy
>"Asteroid mining will be very lucrative."

i doubt it :-) the cost of mining and returning said minerals to earth would be counter productive and cost more than the minerals are worth here on Earth

That could completely change if/when a Space Elevator becomes a reality.

27 posted on 11/23/2005 8:49:05 AM PST by Antonello
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To: Strategerist
"That's obviously true, but based on previous threads people have this vast emotional attachment to the idea that mining asteroids will be economically viable."

I agree the only reason that mining an asteroid would make logical sense, is if someone found a element on one that does not exist on our periodic table or planet.

28 posted on 11/23/2005 8:51:11 AM PST by Kelly_2000 ( (Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch))
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To: Antonello
"That could completely change if/when a Space Elevator becomes a reality."

not sure that helps either as a space elevator concept is useful for cheap and fast transport from earth to near orbit? there are no asteroids in this locality

29 posted on 11/23/2005 8:52:17 AM PST by Kelly_2000 ( (Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch))
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To: Kelly_2000

If you mine asteroids and use the minerals in space instead of returning them to earth - e.g. to build other spaceships or solar panels or whatnot - then that would come closer to economic viability. We are talking about Von Neumann style automation here.


30 posted on 11/23/2005 8:58:04 AM PST by agere_contra
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To: Kelly_2000
not sure that helps either as a space elevator concept is useful for cheap and fast transport from earth to near orbit? there are no asteroids in this locality

How about strapping a rocket on an asteroid and pushing it into low earth orbit?

31 posted on 11/23/2005 9:00:16 AM PST by Puddleglum (Thank God the Boston blowhard lost)
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To: agere_contra
."If you mine asteroids and use the minerals in space instead of returning them to earth - e.g. to build other spaceships or solar panels or whatnot - then that would come closer to economic viability"

Hmm still not convinced, where would you use the minerals? colonizing planets? The moon? Isn't the Earth still better and closer placed to provide this resource both economically and physically (180 million miles to said asteroid and field) than a remote asteroid. I can understand mining on the moon if you intend to colonize it or Mars the same. Why would journeying millions of miles to an asteroid field be logical in your example?

32 posted on 11/23/2005 9:02:06 AM PST by Kelly_2000 ( (Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch))
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To: agere_contra
."If you mine asteroids and use the minerals in space instead of returning them to earth - e.g. to build other spaceships or solar panels or whatnot - then that would come closer to economic viability"

Hmm still not convinced, where would you use the minerals? colonising planets? The moon? Isn't the Earth still better and closer placed to provide this resource both economicaly and physically (180 million miles to said asteroid and field) than a remote asteroid. I can understand mining on the moon if you intend to colonize it or Mars the same. Why would journying millions of miles to an asteroid field be logical in your example?

33 posted on 11/23/2005 9:02:19 AM PST by Kelly_2000 ( (Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch))
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To: Puddleglum
"How about strapping a rocket on an asteroid and pushing it into low earth orbit?"

What source of propulsion and fuel would you use? the fuel resource for such a task would be enormous

34 posted on 11/23/2005 9:03:28 AM PST by Kelly_2000 ( (Because they stand on a wall and say nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch))
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To: add925
Closeup of the landing...


35 posted on 11/23/2005 9:10:04 AM PST by cloud8 (adios, Oli)
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To: Long Distance Rider

I looked up "Hayabusa" thinking that was the word for the do-rag that kamikaze pilots wore. Guess I was wrong, but I did find a picture of one of them taxiing out in a KI-43 Hayabusa fighter. Any translators here?


36 posted on 11/23/2005 9:16:58 AM PST by 19th LA Inf
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Actual photo of landing...

37 posted on 11/23/2005 9:19:23 AM PST by evets (God bless president Bush!)
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To: Kelly_2000
not sure that helps either as a space elevator concept is useful for cheap and fast transport from earth to near orbit? there are no asteroids in this locality

If the space elevator concept stopped at near orbit that would be true. It doesn't. In fact, a near orbit elevator would not even be viable as the counterweight needs to be in geosynchronous orbit just to stay in place. This means payloads can be lifted not only into orbit but set on escape trajectories. This would drop the cost/lb for an extraterrestrial launch from about $10,000/lb to less than $100/lb - making an elevator launch about 1% the cost of a rocket launch. And this figure would actually become smaller per pound as the size of the payload increased - completely opposite of rocket launches.

Once in GSO, the only propellant needed (which can be cheaply lifted as well, removing the limitations on quantity) would be for pushing the payload in the right direction and fine tuning guidance systems.

The return trip of the mined materials would benefit as well. Once mined, a single push would propel the harvested materials into a trajectory that could be intercepted and shipped down the elevator bypassing the need for expensive reentry vessels.

38 posted on 11/23/2005 9:27:16 AM PST by Antonello
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity


Jaxa to Hayabusa, come in Hayabusa. Over
39 posted on 11/23/2005 9:53:06 AM PST by Spruce (Keep your mitts off my wallet)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

The same difference between 99 cents and 1 dollar? Why say something is $5.99 as opposed to $6.00? That always irked me.


40 posted on 11/23/2005 10:12:38 AM PST by Romish_Papist (Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.)
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