Hayabusa: Probe brings samples from asteroid back to Earth
@shreyas-6N1Onv
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Oct 24, 2024
Oct 24, 2024
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For the first time in the history of space research, Japanese scientists at <a title="Institute of Space and Astronautical Science" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Space_and_Astronautical_Science">Institute of Space and Astronautical Science</a> have brought back the pristine samples from a near earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa. This was feat was achieved by the space probe Hayabusa (Falcon in Japanese) loaded with ion powered engines.
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The space probe was launched in May 2003 and “met” the asteroid Itokawa in September 2005. The landing was completed in November 2005 and Hayabusa returned to earth in June 2010. There are other missions which including successful rendezvous with an asteroid but it was Hayabusa who came back to Earth to a rousing welcome. It had the uniqueness that it collected about 1500 samples in form of small grains measuring about 10 microns each. The probe moved within a small distance of the asteroid and fired tiny projectiles. The particles that erupted from asteroid’s surface were collected by a sample collector.
Hayabusa confirmed that Itokawa is not a monolith but a rubble pile formed from fragments that have stuck together in the course of time. Also the density of the asteroid is so low that it is impossible to be formed from a single rock.
Now the astronomer fraternity has the purest form of asteroid samples as the earlier tests had to be conducted from the meteorite and cosmic dust collections. It was difficult to relate the origins of the collections to a specific asteroid in space. The other breakthroughs achieved were the tests to ascertain the caliber of the technologies in the fields of ion engines, autonomous and optical navigation, deep space communication, and close movement on objects with low gravity among others.
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The space probe was launched in May 2003 and “met” the asteroid Itokawa in September 2005. The landing was completed in November 2005 and Hayabusa returned to earth in June 2010. There are other missions which including successful rendezvous with an asteroid but it was Hayabusa who came back to Earth to a rousing welcome. It had the uniqueness that it collected about 1500 samples in form of small grains measuring about 10 microns each. The probe moved within a small distance of the asteroid and fired tiny projectiles. The particles that erupted from asteroid’s surface were collected by a sample collector.Hayabusa confirmed that Itokawa is not a monolith but a rubble pile formed from fragments that have stuck together in the course of time. Also the density of the asteroid is so low that it is impossible to be formed from a single rock.
Now the astronomer fraternity has the purest form of asteroid samples as the earlier tests had to be conducted from the meteorite and cosmic dust collections. It was difficult to relate the origins of the collections to a specific asteroid in space. The other breakthroughs achieved were the tests to ascertain the caliber of the technologies in the fields of ion engines, autonomous and optical navigation, deep space communication, and close movement on objects with low gravity among others.
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