Hayabusa Mission Topic

[centsworth_II]

JAXA announcement: Itokawa sample return successful!

 

[3488]

Sure looks like it centsworth_II. :mrgreen:

Over 1,500 particles, certainly more than enough to do real research with.

25143 Itokawa samples.

Andrew Brown.

 

[newtons_laws]

Congratulations to JAXA!
A well deserved reward for their ingenuity and perseverance in overcoming the numerous technical problems that occurred on the mission.

 

[EarthlingX]

JAXA's press release in English :

http://www.jaxa.jp : Identification of origin of particles brought back by Hayabusa

November 16, 2010 (JST)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been engaged in collecting and categorizing particles in the sampler container* that were brought back by the instrumental module of the asteroid exploration spacecraft "Hayabusa."

Based on the results of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations and analyses of samples that were collected with a special spatula from sample catcher compartment "A", about 1,500 grains were identified as rocky particles, and most of them were judged to be of extraterrestrial origin, and definitely from Asteroid Itokawa.

Their size is mostly less than 10 micrometers, and handling these grains requires very special skills and techniques. JAXA is developing the necessary handling techniques and preparing the associated equipment for the initial (but more detailed) analyses of these ultra-minute particles.

...

...

 

[JonClarke]

At last! A hard earned success by the mission team. It's not much but enough so that Hayabusa can be said to have met all its mission goals. Lots of lessons for next time too.

 

[3488]

Absolutely Jon.

Fantastic day not only for Space Exploration but for Science & the investment in human knowledge as a whole.

Very, very well done JAXA, as Jon says, the amount returned is rather small, but it is enough to fulfil the mission return objectives.

Hayabusa excelled at 25143 Itokawa, thousands of high quality images, taken of the tiny asteroid from almost all possible vantage points & lighting conditions & from many varying distances, some almost from the surface!!!! Spectral, compostional data of the entire asteroid & now even physical samples.

There are lessons to be learnt, not only with what went wrong, but also what went well. I do not see there will have to be huge changes to Hayabusa 2, perhaps greater tolerance levels & some timing issues, slated for a 2014 launch to a Type C Near Earth Asteroid, the 1 KM long 162173 1999 JU3, which appears very identical to the spectra of the 95 KM wide Main Belt asteroid 407 Arachne.

There are not that many type C NEAs, as most NEAs are of type S, like 25143 Itokawa.

Andrew Brown.

 

[orionrider]

Another lesson from this mission is that sometimes it pays to be bold. :idea:
Jaxa was the first to bring back a piece of an outer world because a similar Nasa probe would have been several times heavier and orders of magnitude more expensive. In the end, Nasa's mission still was at the blueprint stage when Hayabusa landed on Itokawa... :roll:
The next 'bold' mission is the russian 'Phobos-Grunt'. Hopefully it will be a similar success.

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.planetary.org : A little more information on the Hayabusa samples from Itokawa

Nov. 17, 2010 | 15:36 PST | 23:36 UTC

By Emily Lakdawalla

Since I posted an update Monday about JAXA confirming extraterrestrial samples in the Hayabusa sample return capsule, JAXA has posted an English-language version of their press release, which contains a bit more information. The text of the release is short but they also had a few slide-like images that had much more detail. To make this information a bit more search-engine friendly, I'm going to copy it here, with some editing and commentary.

...

That's pretty much it. However, I suspect that most of you are asking an obvious question: all of this is about one of two canisters within the sample return capsule. What about the other one -- what about sample catcher B?

This requires a little explanation, and I hope I have this correct. (This was discussed on the Hayabusa science results thread on unmannedspaceflight.com, where a user who goes by "pandaneko" is helpfully posting a lot of information from Japanese sources. With the help of pandaneko's translations, I can find at least some of these facts in the Google translated text of a Japanese blogger's report on a press briefing held on July 5.) The sample canister is a cylinder with two internal chambers There was an opening in the external cylinder covering 120 of its 360 degrees. When Hayabusa launched, the opening was aligned with sample catcher B -- that is, Hayabusa launched with sample catcher B open. (This guarded against sample return failing utterly if the sample catcher door system failed.) Hayabusa touched down on Itokawa twice. When it touched down the first time, the sample capsule chamber door was still positioned over sample catcher B, as it had been since launch. After the first landing, the door was rotated, shutting off access to sample catcher B and opening access to sample catcher A -- the first time sample catcher A was opened since it had been in the clean room. So sample catcher A was open for the second touchdown.

Since Hayabusa returned the sample capsule to Earth, only sample catcher A has been opened by the science team. It appears that they are taking a great deal of care with their work with sample catcher A, making sure to perfect all of their procedures, from retrieval to analysis, before they try sample catcher B. Sample catcher B was open for the more violent of the two landings, so it may actually contain more material than sample catcher A. However, it is also more likely to contain material that was brought from Earth, since it was open during Hayabusa's launch.

 

[JonClarke]

The next 'bold' mission is the russian 'Phobos-Grunt'. Hopefully it will be a similar success.

I really, really hope so. It's such a cool mission.

 

[orionrider]

This has just been confirmed by professeur Kawaguchi: the second container has been opened. It looks like it is packed with larger samples, almost certainly coming from the asteroid.
This is the cherry on the cake for JAXA.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/sc ... 003959.htm

 

[JonClarke]

This has just been confirmed by professeur Kawaguchi: the second container has been opened. It looks like it is packed with larger samples, almost certainly coming from the asteroid.
This is the cherry on the cake for JAXA.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/sc ... 003959.htm

Punches the Air! YES!!!!!!

 

[3488]

Me too Jon. :mrgreen:

Fantastic, larger particles, mini whole rocks almost.

Plus the 1,500 initial particles have been confirmed to come from 25143 Itokawa too.

Olivine has been detected in those examined so far.

Hayabusa is looking more & more successful.

Andrew.

 

[centsworth_II]

This has just been confirmed by professeur Kawaguchi: the second container has been opened. It looks like it is packed with larger samples, almost certainly coming from the asteroid.
This is the cherry on the cake for JAXA.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/sc ... 003959.htm

The article you link says, "The larger particles, measuring about 0.1 millimeter in diameter, were found in the same canister that contained the smaller particles confirmed to be from Itokawa."

 

[centsworth_II]

This article says, "The new particles were found after scientists turned over and tapped the container before going to work on other compartments of the capsule, the agency said."

If the larger particles were found in the same container as the 1500 small particles and the other container has not even been opened yet, that is even better news! It's tough having to rely on second hand news reports. We know how often they get things wrong. Hoping for more official JAXA releases soon.