After seven years of space flight

Jun 14, 2010 07:34 GMT  ·  By

Officials at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announce that their sample-return spacecraft Hayabusa managed to successfully deliver its sample container back to Earth. The mission has been ongoing since 2003, and it traveled more than 2 billion kilometers through the solar system. In 2005, the probe landed on the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, but malfunctioned as it did so. Experts are not yet sure that the sample chamber delivered to Australia yesterday (June 13) contains any samples, but are hopeful that at least some grains of dust have made their way into the filters. The container landed in the Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia, at around 10 am EDT (1400 GMT), Space reports.

The Woomera test range is the largest land-based facility of this type in the world, and is about the size of England. Under a cooperative agreement JAXA and the Australian government signed, Hayabusa's container is to be retrieved from its landing site, and then delivered to the Japanese science teams. There will be no other debris to be collected, given that the Hayabusa mother ship burnt in the Earth's atmosphere. The minute canister it deployed some 40,000 kilometers above the surface is roughly 16 inch wide, but it may very well contain billion-years-old samples of rock and dust.

The American space agency also deployed a team in Australia, to track the canister as it descended. The small object was protected by an advanced heat shield, which is destined to protect it from the rigors of atmospheric reentry. Unlike the space shuttles, which return from low-Earth orbit (LEO), Hayabusa ran into Earth at speeds closely resembling those of asteroids and meteorites, and so the shield had to be a lot thicker. “The capsule comes in with the speed of a natural meteor – an asteroid if you like. The velocity is incredible,” explains principal investigator Peter Jenniskens, from the Mountain View, California-based SETI Institute.

But the task of bringing Hayabusa home was not an easy one. About everything that could have gone wrong during the flight did. “They've had so many challenges they've overcome. They lost their batteries, they lost their attitude control system, they lost two of the three reaction wheels. They've had to start using duct tape and bailing wire and chewing gun to correct for these things,” says Don Yeomans, the NASA project scientist for the JAXA mission.

“It's very exciting. It's an incredible achievement by JAXA to actually go and visit an asteroid, land on it, try to collect materials and bring it back to Earth. The fact that they've been able to bring it back to Earth is incredible,” adds Jenniskens. If even minute traces of dust are found, they could keep geologists busy for years. Ultimately, the Hayabusa samples may help us understand the formation and history of our solar system in finer detail, experts believe.