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Planetary News: Asteroids and Comets (2005)

Hayabusa: Japan's Asteroid Mission Aborts Release of Lander

By A. J. S. Rayl
November 4, 2005
Asteroid Itokawa
Click to enlarge >
Hayabusa took this image of Itokawa at around 11:40 a.m. Japan Standard Time on November 4 [6 p.m. November 3 Pacific Standard Time] when it was about 1 kilometer (a little more than half a mile) from its surface. Credit: ISAS / JAXA

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa -- the world's first mission to attempt to land on an asteroid, collect samples, and return them to Earth – did not carry out the planned release of its lander Friday or the final part of its rehearsal for two brief landings scheduled for later this month. Around noon Japan Standard Time (JST) [7 p.m., November 3 Pacific Standard Time (PST)], mission controllers, who had detected "an anomalous signal" at the critical Go/NoGo timepoint, aborted both the release of the target marker and Minerva, the lander. There was no immediate word on when this part of the mission would be rescheduled.

The $170-million-dollar asteroid chaser was to have descended to just about 30 meters (100 feet) above the asteroid to test a laser range finder and other instruments for the two landings scheduled for later this month and then move in closer to about 15 meters (50 feet) to release a target marker and Minerva – short for MIcro/Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid.

Hayabusa, which means "falcon" in Japanese, began its descent around 4 a.m., JST on November 4 [11 a.m., November 3 PST] and by 8:45 a.m., it was within 1,700 meters (about 1 mile) of the surface. It was proceeding "smoothly" according to the live feed from JAXA's website, and two hours later, at 10:50 a.m. JST, it was just 1 kilometer (a little more than half a mile) from Itokawa. But that is apparently as close as it got before the anomalous signal brought the activities to a halt.

Developed at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), a space science research division arm of JAXA, Hayabusa  launched from Japan’s Kagoshima Space Center on May 9, 2003. It overcame a number of obstacles during its 1 billion kilometer (621 million mile) journey, including several life-threatening solar flares. That slowed its arrival a bit, but the spacecraft finally arrived at Itokawa in September of this year.