Space Topics: Hayabusa (MUSES-C)
The Year in Pictures: 2005
Hayabusa Maps Itokawa's Boulder-Studded Surface
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Itokawa's north polar region
Credit: ISAS / JAXA
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November. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa spacecraft
arrived
at the tiny asteroid Itokawa on September 12, 2005. Its journey
had been fraught with difficulties, including an enormous solar flare in November
2003 and the loss of two of its three reaction wheels, but despite these problems
Hayabusa's controllers skillfully
maneuvered the spacecraft around Itokawa. Tiny
Itokawa's gravity is so miniscule that Hayabusa could not orbit the asteroid. Instead,
Hayabusa was in a heliocentric orbit, pacing Itokawa, and employed tiny thruster
burns to bring it to stable positions with respect to the asteroid. From
viewpoints on all sides of the asteroid, Hayabusa snapped pictures, looking
for a place to touch down. The pictures proved Itokawa to be unexpectedly
bouldery and completely lacking obvious impact craters, making landing
site selection very difficult.
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