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Brightstar82
Rear Admiral
Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Posts: 4394
Location: A Borg Cube....Where Else?
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 Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:55 am Japanese space probe lands on asteroid-Kyodo |
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| Quote: | TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese probe on a mission to bring back the first rock samples from an asteroid landed briefly on its target on Sunday but did not drop the equipment for collecting surface material, Kyodo news reported on Wednesday.
Scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) had said earlier the unmanned probe failed to touch down on Itokawa, nearly 300 million km (186 million miles) from earth.
After a voyage of 2-� years, the space probe stayed on the surface of the 548-metre-long asteroid for 30 minutes, marking the first landing by a Japanese spacecraft on a celestial body, Kyodo said.
The agency will decide on Thursday whether to have the probe attempt a second landing, the news service report added.
Asteroids, unlike larger space bodies such as the moon, are believed to contain rocks that have remained largely unchanged since the early days of the solar system and could thus offer valuable information about its origins.
Information about structure could also be vital if an asteroid were found to be on a collision course with the earth.
The probe, called Hayabusa (Japanese for "falcon"), has already sent back a series of detailed images of the asteroid, which Japanese media noted looks like a potato.
In a photograph, taken on Sunday and published on JAXA Web site http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2005/1110_hayabusa.shtml, the probe's shadow can be made out on Itokawa's surface.
Itokawa is named after pioneering Japanese rocket scientist Hideo Itokawa.
� Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. |
www.reuters.com
I thought this was very interesting 
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webtaz99
Commodore
Joined: 13 Nov 2003
Posts: 1229
Location: The Other Side
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| Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:24 am |
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Too bad they lost their rover, too. It must be aggravating to know that little critter is just few hundred yards away, but it might as well not exist.
After all the highly ignorant but popular NASA-bashing I've heard, it's about time some other space agencies have failed in their attempts as well. It's not that I want to see missions fail, it's just that people have no idea just how perfect things have to be and how many things have to go exactly as planned to pull off even a seemingly 'simple' task. NASA deserves way more credit for thier successes and much less bashing for their failures.
I sincerely hope that the Japanese do get to return some asteroidal material. Aside from its scientific value (which will be limited considering how much we can learn about the surface with non-contact sensors), for a time it will be undisputably the rarest substance on Earth.
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"History is made at night! Character is who you are in the dark." (Lord John Whorfin)
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