Space Topics: Hayabusa (MUSES-C)
Mission Objectives
The Hayabusa mission was designed with both new technology and science objectives.
The new technologies developed in Japan for this and future sample return missions
include:
- a high performance electric propulsion system or ion drive, comprised of
four microwave-discharge-type ion engines
- an autonomous navigation system
- a sample collection system and small robot probe that can take measurements
and images of the surface from the surface
- a spacecraft/re-entry capsule system for returning the samples to Earth
The science objectives for Hayabusa are:
- to get to the asteroid Itokawa and “park” in a heliocentric
orbit about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away
- descend to a “home position” orbit about 6.8 kilometers (about
4 miles) from the asteroid
- collect samples: pellets will be fired from the spacecraft at close range,
and a sample collecting device will ”catch” about a gram's worth
of the ejecta caused by the pellets' impacts
- deposit the lander, Minerva, to the surface to collect images and take
measurements of the surface directly
- return samples to Earth
- conduct sample return analysis, which will provide a detailed and definitive
elemental composition analysis of the asteroid's surface materials
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