Latest News
The Voyage Home:
Japan's Hayabusa-2 Probe to Head for Earth
Japan's Hayabusa-2 probe will leave its orbit
around a distant asteroid and head for Earth on Wednesday (Nov.
13th) after an unprecedented mission, carrying samples
that could shed light on the origins of the Solar System.
The long voyage home would begin at 10:05 am
(0105 GMT), with the
probe expected to drop off its precious samples some
time late 2020, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
said.
"We expect Hayabusa-2 will provide new
scientific knowledge to us," project manager Yuichi Tsuda told
reporters.
The probe will bring back to Earth "carbon and
organic matter" that will provide data as to "how the
matter is scattered around the Solar System, why it exists on the
asteroid and how it is related to Earth," added Tsuda.
The mission took the fridge-sized probe some
300 million kilometers (186 million miles) from Earth, where it
explored the asteroid Ryugu, whose name means "Dragon Palace" in
Japanese-a reference to a castle at the bottom of the ocean in an
ancient fable.
In April, Hayabusa-2 fired an "impactor" into
the asteroid to stir up materials that had not previously been
exposed to the atmosphere.
It then made a "perfect" touchdown on the
surface of the asteroid to collect the samples that scientists hope
will provide clues into what the Solar System was like at its birth
some 4.6 billion years ago.
"I'm feeling half-sad, half-determined to do
our best to get the probe home," said Tsuda.
"Ryugu has been at the heart of our everyday
life for the past year and a half," he added.
'New
destination'
Hayabusa-2 will receive its orders to head for
home on Wednesday, break free of the asteroid's gravity on November
18 and fire its main engines early next month en route to Earth,
JAXA said.
Tsuda said the six-year mission, which had a
price tag of around 30 billion yen ($278 million), had exceeded
expectations but admitted his team had to overcome a host of
technical problems.
It took the probe three-and-a-half years to
get to the asteroid but the return journey should be significantly
shorter because Earth and Ryugu will be much closer due to their
current positions.
Hayabusa-2 is expected to drop the samples off
in the South Australian desert, but JAXA is negotiating with the
Australian government about how to arrange it, Tsuda said.
The probe is the successor to JAXA's first
asteroid explorer "Hayabusa", which means falcon in Japanese.
The earlier probe returned with dust samples
from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010 despite various
setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey, and was hailed as a
scientific triumph.
The first generation probe re-entered Earth's
atmosphere and burned out.
Under the current plan, Hayabusa-2 will boldly
continue its journey in space after dropping off its capsule to
Earth, and might "carry out another asteroid exploration," JAXA
spokesman Keiichi Murakami earlier told AFP.
"The team has just started to study what can
be done (after dropping off the capsule)," but there is no concrete
plans about a new destination, Tsuda said.
Source: Phys.org
|
