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Approximately 880,000 People Joins MUSES-C Campaign

The Planetary Society of Japan, TPS/J, in concert with The Institute of Space and Astronatical Science, ISAS, conducted the worldwide public campaign, "Let's Fly to Meet Your Star Prince," from May 10 through July 26, 2002. The record-breaking 877,490 people from the world registered their names to join the campaign. The largest ever number scored in the past in Japanese space-related campaigns was 270,000 when ISAS launched the Mars spacecraft, NOZOMI, hope, in July 1998.

Artist's concept of MUSES-C Spacecraft approaching down the asteroid (Courtesy: ISAS)

The campaign was executed in association with launching of MUSES-C which was to lift off from the institute's Kagoshima Space Center between November and December last year. The press conference was held in Tokyo on May10, 2002, followed by publicity campaigns throughout the country. Affiliation of TPS/J with The Planetary Society, the world's largest non-governmental space-interest group, helped the campaign diffuse overseas. The United States accounted for over 50 percent of the registration, followed by 40 percent of Japan. Canada, Australia and Great Britain were the countries where sizable numbers were sent from.

MUSES-C is the world's first sample return mission from Asteroid 1998SF36, a tiny minor planet of about 600 x 300 in size, orbiting at a distance of approximately 300 million kilometers from Earth. The spacecraft is about 500kg in wet mass and is 3-axis stabilized with 1.5m x 1.5m x 1.2m dimensions. MUSES-C is an acronym for a series of robotic science missions performed by the Space Engineering Spacecraft aboard MU rocket and C means the third mission of the series.

The registered names have already been etched on the aluminum foil sheet to be enclosed inside a target marker, a softball size ball which will be released onto the asteroid surface before the spacecraft begins sample collection.

Target Marker (Courtesy : ISAS)

Launch of MUSES-C has been postponed until May 2003 due to partial mal-function with its altitude control system. However, the spacecraft will reach the asteroid in mid-summer 2005 as initially. It will complete scientific activities, including sample collection by the end of the same year. Collected samples will be contained within an on-board sample return capsule. In July 2007, MUSES-C will cruise back to Earth's atmosphere where the capsule will be detached from the spacecraft and softland on the ground by deploying a parachute.

Archive

2001
Public Programs of TPS/J

Space Art Contest : Japan

Lecture in Tokyo

TPS/J Booth Attracts Visitors at ISAS Open House