The k2p blog

The Japanese asteroid exploration spacecraft Hayabusa returned miraculously on 13th June from a seven-year, trouble-filled journey  powered by ion engines.

Hayabusa’s main engine failed due to fuel leaks, but the probe was able to complete its odyssey by relying on ion engines developed by  NEC. The Japanese firm’s unique method of using microwaves can extend the lifespan of an ion engine to more than twice that of conventional engines. Hayabusa’s successful return “has boosted the credibility of ion engines,” an NEC official said.

image: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missiondetails.cfm?mission=Hayabusa

Japan is planning for the launch of the “Hayabusa-2” asteroid probe sometime between July 2014 and 2015.

The Hayabusa spacecraft was launched on 9 May 2003 at 04:29:25 UTC on an M-V rocket from the Uchinoura Space Center (still called Kagoshima Space Center at that time). Following launch, the spacecraft’s name was changed from the original MUSES-C to Hayabusa, the Japanese word for falcon. The spacecraft’s xenon ion engines (four separate units), operating near-continuously for two years, slowly moved Hayabusa toward a September 2005 rendezvous with Itokawa. As it arrived, the spacecraft did not go into orbit around the asteroid, but remained in a station-keeping heliocentric orbit close by.

Hayabusa surveyed the asteroid surface from a distance of about 20 km, the “gate position”. After this the spacecraft moved closer to the surface (the “home position”), and then approached the asteroid for a series of soft landings and for the collection of samples at a safe site. Autonomous optical navigation was employed extensively during this period because the long communication delay prohibits Earth-based real-time commanding. At the second Hayabusa touchdown with its deployable collection horn, the spacecraft was programmed to fire tiny projectiles at the surface and then collect the resulting spray. Any samples that were collected are now held inside a separate re-entry capsule. However, it is currently uncertain whether the metal projectiles were fired during contact.

After a few months in proximity to the asteroid, the spacecraft was scheduled to fire its engines to begin its cruise back to Earth. This maneuver was delayed due to problems with attitude control and the thrusters of the craft. Once it was on its return trajectory, the re-entry capsule was released from the main spacecraft three hours before reentry, and the capsule coasted on a ballistic trajectory, re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere at 13:51, 13 June 2010 UTC.

Three countries have launched humans into space, 10 countries have launch capabilities to put satellites into orbit and over 50 countries are involved in the design and manufacture of satellites.

Satellite launch-capable countries (Wikipedia)

Tags: ion engines, Science, spacecraft, Technology

This entry was posted on August 4, 2010 at 7:50 am and is filed under Japan, Science, Space, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.