The body of the asteroid probe Hayabusa-2 which aims at a launch in December, 2014 was completed on the Sagamihara campus of JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Sagamihara city, Kanagawa prefecture on August 31, today. This space probe is a succeeding machine of Hayabusa which extracted the particulates of the asteroid for the first time in history, and returned in 2010. Scientists will be going to explore the asteroid 1999JU3 which attaches the aim and to explore the origin of life, if an organic matter and water probably exist. Hayabusa-2 is due to bring the particles inside an asteroid home using collision equipment. It is sharply improved in the engine and the antenna from reflection of successive occurrence of the fault of first Hayabusa. JAXA Professor: Project manager: Dr.Hitoshi Kuninaka said, the universe is very severe environment. Project team mind is tightened and it fights against a new voyage! Hayabusa-2 is due to reach the asteroid 1999JU3 in 2030. The return schedule to the earth is in 2032, and serves as a long journey of 5,200 million km of round trips. The body weight is about 600 kg. It will be carried to JAXA Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southern part of Japan of a launching site late in September, this year. Asteroid explorer Hayabusa-1 arrived at the small asteroid Itokawa whose size is only about 500m and showed us the mysterious world. Itokawa is the name of my grand-grand uncles name. He is Dr. Hideo Itokawa, ex-professor of Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo. Hayabusa made it possible for us to see exact nature of a very small asteroid approaching to the earth. JAXA is now considering a mission named Hayabusa-2. This is a mission to retrieve samples of surface from an asteroid to the earth. This is a similar mission to Hayabusas one, However, target asteroid is different from Hayabusas. The Asteroid Itokawa explored by Hayabusa is rock-rich S-type one. Hayabusa-2 will visit a C-type asteroid. C-type asteroids are also rock quality but it is thought that their rocks contain much more organic matters and water. Hayabusa-2 will challenge very interesting objectives what are original organic matters and water existed in the solar system?, how are they related to life and ocean water? Also, Hayabusa-2 will challenge new technologies as well as improving the technologies of Hayabusa. An asteroid currently considered as a target of Hayabusa-2 is temporally called 1999 JU3. This has not been named yet. Observation of spectrum of sunlight reflected by the asteroid shows that it has features of C-type. That is exactly suitable for Hayabusa-2. Asteroid 1999 JU3 has a similar orbit as that of Itokawa and it is in the orbit that occasionally comes close to the earth orbit. Past observations show that, the size is approximately 920m and relatively it looks like a sphere. The rotation period is approximately 7.6 hours. The albedo on the surface is tiny, estimated about 0.06. Like Hayabusa, Hayabusa-2 will use an ion engine to access the destination asteroid!! Hayabusa-2s spacecraft is almost same as Hayabusas one, but, we will improve the problem identified at Hayabusa and aggressively adopt new technology. And Hayabusa-2 will observe and collect the sample, based on the C type of Asteroid. Best timing to launch to the asteroid for this sample return mission is 2014. Hayabusa-2 is supposed to reach the asteroid in the middle of 2018, stay there about one and half years, depart from the asteroid to return to the earth at the end of 2019, and come back to the earth at the end of 2020. It is considered to mount Crackup installation on Hayabusa-2 that Hayabusa didnt have. It will be separated above 1999 JU3 and explodes there after Hayabusa-2 hides behind the asteroid. Then an impactor of approximately 2 kg hits the surface of the asteroid and it will make a crater of several meters in diameter. After that, it tries to collect materials inside of the crater. In other words, Hayabusa-2 will collect materials of underground not only the ones on the surface. By doing that, we try to collect less altered materials. Artists concept of Japan’s proposed Hayabusa-2 spacecraft, which would reconnoiter asteroid 1999 JU3 in mid-2018. Hayabusa-2 would hurl an impactor into the asteroid, sample the resulting crater and send pieces back to Earth for study. JAXA is readying a new asteroid probe for launch, an ambitious mission that aims to build on the victory of the countrys first round-trip asteroid mission that sent the Hayabusa spacecraft to retrieve samples of the space rock Itokowa. The new Japanese asteroid mission, called Hayabusa-2, is scheduled for launch in December 2014 and aimed at the asteroid 1999 JU3, a large space rock about 3,018 feet (920 meters) in length. It is due to arrive at the asteroid in mid-2018, loiter at the space rock and carry out a slew of challenging firsts before departing the scene at the end of 2019. If all goes well, the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft will return to Earth with samples of asteroid 1999 JU3 at the end of 2020. The probes name is Japanese for Falcon2. Ready for launching by H2-A rocket, good luck! Hisashi UMEKUBO/Senior Space Mission Controller/ESA/JAXA/Master of Engineering/First-class radio operator for general services, First-Class Radio Operator for On-the-Ground Services(ex-Spy satellites mission controller)
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 13:48:38 +0000
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