Planetary News ARCHIVE

November 21, 2005

Names of 877,490 People Lands on Asteroid Itokawa
Hayabusa Spacecraft Will Challenge Sampling Again!

JAXA announced on November 20 successful release and safe landing of the target marker, a navigating landmark for Hayabusa to touch down and obtain samples of surface materials of Asteroid Itokawa. The 10cm-diameter ball contains 877,490 names sent in by people of 149 countries to participate in the worldwide public campaign, “Let’s Fly to Meet Your Little Prince,” jointly conducted in 2002 by ISAS(present-day JAXA ) and The Planetary Society of Japan with support by The Planetary Society.

Image of Itokawa taken by Hayabusa at 4:58a.m., November 20.
Courtesy by ISAS/JAXA

Hayabusa, a falcon, started descending at 9:00p.m.,November 19. The asteroid explorer went down and down smoothly and reached the point of 40 meters above from the surface of the asteroid to release the on-board target marker at 4:55a.m.next day. The target marker dashed out at a velocity of 10cm/sec and settled down at about 5:50a.m. on the “Muses Sea,” a flat terrain with less boulders and rocks.

Upon releasing the target marker, the spacecraft continued her descent to an altitude of about 10 meters from the surface of the asteroid, but it did not switch into sample collection phase, just staying at the same altitude.

In order to avoid possible damage to Hayabusa to be caused by heat of nearly 100 centigrade coming up from Itokawa, the mission control center sent up a command to Hayabusa to soar up right away. Thus sample collection had to be given up. The mission team has started analyzing the data to clarify what is responsible for the failure in preparation for Hayabusa’ a second sample collection scheduled for upcoming Friday, November 25. According to the mission team, there is a possibility of putting off sample collection because at least a few days of maneuver is needed to get Hayabusa back to her normal attitude for a next challenge.