The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that its probe spacecraft has failed in its mission to land on the asteroid Itokawa on November 20. The reason for this failure was a malfunction that occurred just a few meters above the surface of the asteroid.
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Hayabusa was supposed to land like this |
Specifically, after approaching the surface of Itokawa at a distance of 40 meters at 3:30 AM on November 20 (Hanoi time), the spacecraft fired a copper bullet down onto the asteroid as planned. This bullet was launched to mark the spot where the spacecraft would collect rocks and dust. Another mission for the spacecraft was to leave behind an aluminum plate on the asteroid. This plate bears the names of 880,000 people from 149 countries, including American filmmaker Steven Spielberg and British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.
Next, the spacecraft continued its descent towards Itokawa, coming within 17 meters of the asteroid’s surface. However, shortly after, Hayabusa experienced a malfunction and could not confirm its altitude, temporarily losing contact with Earth for about three hours. At 10 AM (Hanoi time), the spacecraft resumed data transmission but had drifted away from the asteroid. Tatsuo Oshima, an official from JAXA, stated: “We believe that the copper bullet has landed on the surface of the asteroid since Hayabusa was only 17 meters away from it.”
Experts are in contact with the spacecraft and are analyzing data to calculate its precise position. However, it is still unclear whether there was a technical malfunction. Hayabusa’s autonomous positioning system is programmed to abort the landing plan in case of any threatening factors to the spacecraft.
| Japan became the fourth country in the world to launch a satellite in 1972. Earlier this year, Japan announced a major project to send its first astronauts into space and establish a base on the Moon by 2025. |
Junichiro Kawaguchi, the project director, hopes the spacecraft can land on Itokawa next Friday. If this mission is successful, it will mark the first time material from an asteroid has been brought back to Earth. Collecting asteroid samples will aid scientists in uncovering secrets about the formation of the solar system. Information about the asteroid’s structure is also significant as it will help humanity address potential asteroid collisions with Earth in the future.
Scientists believe that the surfaces of asteroids have remained virtually unchanged for centuries, unlike larger celestial bodies such as Earth and the Moon. A NASA spacecraft collected data from the asteroid Eros for two weeks in 2001; however, it did not return samples to Earth.
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Asteroid Itokawa |
Last Saturday, JAXA also lost contact with a small robot that Hayabusa had deployed after the robot failed to land on the asteroid. The Minerva robot, weighing nearly 600 grams, was designed to survey the surface of Itokawa using three small cameras. The asteroid Itokawa is currently about 300 million kilometers away from Earth.
Launched in May 2003 with a budget of $100 million, Hayabusa is set to begin its journey back to Earth in early December. It is expected to land in Australia in June 2007. The asteroid Itokawa is named after Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japanese rocketry. Itokawa orbits between Earth and the Sun and measures 690 meters in length and 300 meters in width, with a gravitational pull of 1/100,000 that of Earth. This makes landing on the surface of Itokawa quite challenging.
Minh Sơn (Compiled from AP, AFP, Reuters)
