R
LKD":32p0g359 said:Looking forward to 4 weeks from now. I can't wait till it arrives. I found this and thought it was pretty interesting as an arrival shot from the satellite.
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/topics/2010/0517.shtml
LKD":22rw5vau said:Looking forward to 4 weeks from now. I can't wait till it arrives. I found this and thought it was pretty interesting as an arrival shot from the satellite.
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/topics/2010/0517.shtml
By Leonard David
SPACE.com’s Space Insider Columnist
posted: 02 June 2010
08:58 am ET
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — A "welcome home" team of eager scientists is anxiously awaiting this month's return of a Japanese asteroid probe and its planned nosedive into Australia because — just maybe — it is toting a tiny, but prized, piece of space rock.
If all goes well, the sample return capsule of Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft will parachute down on June 13 over a sparsely populated land within Woomera Test Range in South Australia.
Blazing through the sky, the capsule's re-entry would be both a triumph of stick-to-it-ness and a tribute to scientific curiosity.
June 5, 2010 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that TCM-3 operation was successfully completed (1:44 p.m. June 5th, 2010 (JST)).
By this operation, Hayabusa was guided from Earth's outer rim toward WPA in Australia.
Hayabusa system is going well.
* TCM : Trajectory Correction Maneuver
* WPA : Woomera Prohibited Area
andrew_t1000":1a6kyvmo said:The Stuart Highway runs just to the east of Woomera, Farina Station, which is where I'd probably go with just me and the hounds, is southish.
It's not that big a deal getting close to the "range" these days, when I was a kid all maps of the area had bright pink shading and dire warnings!
I was just thinking of going, setting up camp and using wide angle lenses on my still camera, "super nightshot" on video.
Even if it's just a streak it'll be worth it. I figure next morning there would be recovery action to film.
If I got a chance to go with the news guy, we'd be in the thick of it!
It's a beautiful area, a little stark and bleak, nasty in summer, but a great place to set up a telescope.
It's where we went to view Halley's Comet.
I think this says few will likely be able to witness Hayabusa or its sample capsule's fireball with optical scopes: http://bit.ly/9w1NSf
Jun. 7, 2010 | 15:27 PDT | 22:27 UTC
By Emily Lakdawalla
The Hayabusa spacecraft is about to die.
On Sunday, June 13, at 14:00 UTC, Hayabusa will burn up in Earth's atmosphere, bringing its dramatic seven-year mission to an end. But, in doing so, it will hopefully return a tiny capsule that will hopefully contain some dust from an asteroid, and so become the first mission ever to return a sample of material snatched from the surface of a world beyond the Moon.
I will be posting frequent updates on the status of Hayabusa during these final days. While you wait for updates, you might enjoy reading about some of this mission's dramatic history. Hayabusa's mission has been one of dizzying highs and seemingly impossible-to-overcome lows. Here are some of the highlights, with links to feature articles and past blog entries.
June 9, 2010 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that TCM-4 operation was successfully completed (15:00 June 9th, 2010 (JST)). By this operation, Hayabusa spacecraft was precisely guided to WPA in Australia.
Hayabusa system is going well.
* TCM: Trajectory Correction Maneuver
* WPA Woomera Prohibited Area
MeteorWayne":2wwz6604 said:Pretty good I would think. It was designed for that specific task, to survive reentry, and with the last TCM sucessfully completed (Thanx EX) it's on target which means it should have anticipated loads and heating.
LIVE - HAYABUSA RE-ENTRY
An attempt will be made to provide a live video feed of the Hayabusa Re-Entry in the minutes around the re-entry at 13:51 UT, Sunday June 13. The video will be chosen from cameras operated onboard NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory by Jesse Carpenter and Greg Merkes of NASA Ames Research Center, or those operated by Ron Dantowitz, Marek Kozubal, James Brietmeyer and Brigitte Berman of Clay Center Observatory, or those operated by Mike Taylor and Jonathan Snively of Utah State University. Please note that such downlinks have proven very difficult in past missions. The Hayabusa re-entry will be fainter than that of ATV-1 "Jules Verne" in 2008. Also, the video feed will be transmitted by the DC-8 aircraft via INMARSAT and may not be of high quality. Large volumes of traffic on this website may hinder watching this live feed. For that reason, shortly after the re-entry, we plan to upload higher quality video, first via the INMARSAT uplink on our way back, and later, after we land at Melbourne, via an internet communication.
* Click Here to see Live Video [around 13:45 - 13:55 UTC = 9:45 Ð 9: 55 a.m. EDT June 13, 2010]
* Click here for post-event video [around 13:55 Ð 15:00 UTC = 9:55 Ð 11:00 a.m. EDT]
* Click here for post-landing video [expected around 16:00 Ð 17:00 UTC = 12:00 a.m. Ð 1:00 p.m. EDT]
"Hayabusa is hurtling toward Earth at an immense speed, comparable to that of an asteroid impact," said Peter Jenniskens, the observation campaign's principal investigator and a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, Calif., and the SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif. "The capsule that protects the asteroid sample will be only 6,500 feet ahead of the rest of the spacecraft, which will break into numerous pieces, essentially making it a man-made meteor."
"The return of Hayabusa provides NASA and JAXA with a rare opportunity to monitor the performance of an atmospheric entry vehicle at speeds much higher than that of the space shuttle returning from low-Earth orbit," said
Jay Grinstead, the observation campaign project manager and a research scientist at NASA Ames. "The spectrum of the light emitted by the gas and surface at these extreme temperatures tells us about the physics and chemistry of atmospheric entry. Our vantage point onboard the DC-8 and the variety of instruments enable us to track the evolution of the spectrum and compare it to simulations used for design and analysis of entry systems."
June 08, 2010 - We are taking off for Melbourne, via Hawaii! Our departure from Palmdale is scheduled for 8:30 this evening. We are as ready as can be at this time, looking forward to the opportunity to further practice operating our cameras during the transit flights, which will all be at night. Here, Jonathan Sniveley of Utah State University is loading his bags on the aircraft. Photo: Tom Schida of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's Photo department (Tom has many other photos available for media).
June 07, 2010 - Instruments were calibrated against the brightness of known lamps this evening. This involved raising continuum and wavelength calibration lamps to above the aircraft wing on a platform outside on the tarmac. Michael Winter and Alan Cassell of NASA Ames Research Center provided the calibration lamps. Erin Leidy of the SETI Institute REU program assisted in their operation. Inside the aircraft, Clay Center Observatory students Brigitte Berman and Yannis Karavas were among others who aimed at the lights and recorded their spectra.