Japanese scientsts confirm space probe Hayabusa recovered asteroid dust

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Japanese scientsts confirm space probe Hayabusa recovered asteroid dust
Japanese scientists have confirmed that particles found inside the Hayabusa space probe are from the asteroid Itokawa, the first time that specimens from an asteroid have been recovered.
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 7:00AM GMT 16 Nov 2010

Hayabusa returned to Earth in June, its heat-proof pod crashing into the Australian outback after a seven-year journey, but scientists needed an extended analysis of the samples within the craft to make sure they were from Itokawa.

"This is a world first and it is a remarkable accomplishment that brought home material from a celestial body other than the moon," Yoshiaki Takagu, science and technology minister, told a press conference called to announce the scientists' findings.

The craft's achievement is all the more remarkable given the vast distances it travelled - Itokawa is 300 million km from Earth, twice the distance of our planet to the sun - and a series of equipment failures during the mission.

Ground control feared the 510-kg craft had been lost when it was out of contact for seven weeks, a fault that added three years to the flight, while it also suffered a malfunctioning gyroscope and a fuel leak.




Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8135972/Japanese-scientsts-confirm-space-probe-Hayabusa-recovered-asteroid-dust.html

[Ian David]

1. Yay!

[obxhead]

2. It's a shame we could not have led the way in this awesome

capture.

Then again our space program was created solely for the purpose of finding better ways to kill people, not science.

[NBachers]

3. Microbes released from dust have led to huge unusual growth spurts in certain reptile species

Respected senior Institute for Monster Research scientist and his attractive, single adult daughter are monitoring from their studio-prop laboratory.

A dashing young American brave military man has been dispatched to participate with them.

Unscrupulous cartoon gangsters trying to figure how to use this to their advantage

Corrupt reprehensible politicians want to eliminate funding for Institute

Stand by . . . an Emergency Message is coming in from the Institute for Monster Research

*static*

Aside from the funny business - Hayabusa, in Japanese, means peregrine falcon.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Uh, oh.

http://images1.cliqueclack.com.nyud.net:8090/tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/snl-aliens-425x241.png

[guitar man]

8. Oh no

There goes Tokyo !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7gFlSGXt_k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

:D

[sofa king]

5. Way to stick with it, JAXA!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa

Talk about a close-run thing, JAXA somehow managed to stay with that poor thing through half a dozen mission critical faults and still achieved near total success.

Particularly important is the successful use of long-burning ion thrusters. Perfection of those will make years-long, even decades-long, exploration missions inexpensive enough to be feasible. They will make long-term exploration of the outer solar system possible, and the remote navigation and rendezvous abilities tested by Hayabusa will even make possible the ability to cheaply "update" a mission in progress with fuel deliveries and equipment updates.

Successful use of these technologies should lower their cost significantly, perhaps down to the point where many colleges and universities will be able to manage their own semi-autonomous, ion powered, upgradeable exploration missions.

[snooper2]

6. So that's what happened to my bike....they strapped a JATO rocket to it

The bastards!

:rofl:

[IDemo]

7. From what I've heard about Busa's,

the Air Force would probably strap them onto JATO's to make them faster.