Scientists To Recover Asteroid Clues From Hayabusa Explorer
June 15th, 2010 - 7:03 pm ICT by Pen Men At Work
June 15, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): The Hayabusa explorer is back on Earth after seven years of journey covering 4-billion mile (6-billion kilometer). On Monday, the Japanese space capsule reached the Australian Outback after travelling to an asteroid. Scientists are expecting to get a clue about the evolution of the solar system from the samples, which the explorer hopefully obtained.
The spacecraft has created history by landing safely on the earth after its tryst with the asteroid. Seiichi Sakamoto of the’ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’ had launched the explorer in 2003. An excited Seiichi said, “We are thrilled to get the capsule back. The joy is special because Hayabusa has been suffering technical problems while landing, so it was delayed for three years.
He added, “We tried all possible methods to overcome this extremely difficult technological challenge. We could achieve this for our ‘never say die’ attitude.”
On Monday, Scientists reached the capsule’s landing place by two helicopters. It landed in the Woomera Prohibited Area, northwest of the South Australian state capital of Adelaide, which is in a remote military zone at a distance of 300 miles.
On Monday late afternoon, the capsule was taken to the town of Woomera. Here, it will be prepared for shifting to Japan, informed the NASA scientist Scott Sandford. “The photographs indicated that the capsule had made a soft desert landing, but I have not seen it yet”, Sandford added.
The capsule will move to Japan before the scientists can detect asteroid dust in its sample container.
Sandford further added, “All the series of steps related to the re-entry of the spacecraft took place without any hindrance. It speaks volumes about the perfect designing and operation of the spacecraft.”
In 2005, the Hayabusa reached an asteroid called ‘Itokawa’. Again in late 2005, the Hayabusa landed on the asteroid twice after taking images from all the angles of the 1,640-foot asteroid.
Scientists expect to study the timing of the formation of the asteroid. They will also study, how it was formed, its physical properties and the radiation effect on it.”
If it really carries samples of the asteroid, it would become the fourth sample returning to the earth. A team of scientists from Japan, Australia and America, will do the preliminary analysis of the capsule. The asteroid material would be available for all the scientists around the world after one year.
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Tags: adelaide, australian outback, desert landing, evolution of the solar system, helicopters, hindrance, itokawa, japanese space, late afternoon, men at work, military zone, nasa, nasa scientist, pen men, sakamoto, space capsule, spacecraft, technological challenge, tryst, woomera prohibited area