[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

I cant wait to see what imagery we get from the 'hopper' - it will be the first PROPER landing on a small body if they can pull it off

Doug

[Toma B]

I have just find this site... Maybe they are updating it daily

Today's Hayabusa

[djellison]

Wow - it's not far out now

It's closing speed is very slow as I understand though.

Doug

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Astro-E2 has just been successfully launched:
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2005/07/20050710_m-v-6_e.html

Is it possible that Japan is finally coming out of its space funk? (Although the solar-panel problem with Hayabusa is worrisome. It's increasingly apparent that radiation is not only the biggest threat to manned deep-space travel; it's a serious problem for the UNMANNED variety.)

[deglr6328]

So I guess it DID launch with some type of external mobile device! I kept hearing conflicting reports that nasa was supposed to supply the tiny rover and it didn't and then that it wasn't going to have one at all and now that it does have a hopper. Was it slapped together quick after the nasa nanorover deal fell through or planned on al along or what...? This site doesn't say too much....

[Stephen]

So I guess it DID launch with some type of external mobile device! I kept hearing conflicting reports that nasa was supposed to supply the tiny rover and it didn't and then that it wasn't going to have one at all and now that it does have a hopper. Was it slapped together quick after the nasa nanorover deal fell through or planned on al along or what...? This site doesn't say too much....

Try this LPI (PDF) page instead. It's fairly brief, but it does tell you a little about the little "hopper" craft (called "Minerva", BTW).

This Wikipedia page also has some (less technical) tidbits, while this JAXA page looks like it might be useful.

In general, though, this press release seems to sum up pretty much all that's out there about Minerva:

"Upon its arrival at the asteroid in the summer of 2005, the Hayabusa spacecraft will hover near the asteroid's surface for about four months. Its instruments will study the surface in detail, determine the asteroid's mass and bulk density and determine which minerals are present. A small coffee-can-sized surface hopper, called MINERVA, will leap about the asteroid taking surface temperature measurements and high-resolution images with each of its three miniature cameras."

[deglr6328]

Its at less than .5 earth-moon distance now. Still no images....? I need "more detaile"!!

[Phil Stooke]

The reason there are no images is simple: the asteroid is only a few hundred m across, so from 150 000 km it would only be a pixel or two across in an image. The camera is designed to operate from 20 km distance. They are presumably taking navigation images, but not worth releasing.

Phil

[djellison]

Yeah - this is one TINY asteroid - I think Dactyl ( Ida's tiny moon - an asteroid that Galileo flew past en route to Jupiter) is the only thing even remotely on the same size - but the asteroid Hayabusa is visiting is even smaller than THAT

It's like visiting a single block of houses.

Doug

[maycm]

I've been tracking the distance to target from this website.

On June 13th it was 135,172Km
On June 21st it is 97,614Km

Getting closer!

At this rate they will be there in a couple more weeks.

[maycm]

Update from the webpage indicated above.

Hayabusa is entering into the conjunction area that defined 3 degrees of view angle from the sun since second week of July.

Hayabusa will be out from the conjunction area on end of July and will be restarted ordinary operation.

During the conjunction period, Ion Engine System (IES) is stopped. On beginning of August, IES will be operated again.

On middle of September, Hayabusa will reach to the asteroid Itokawa

[tedstryk]

I am very interested to see an asteroid of this size close up. I am curious to see if it has any significant loose material on its surface, given its low gravity. I am also wondering how, if the mission is successful, the Japanese will do with image releases. They haven't ever had much to release - there were a few neat Nozomi pictures, but they were highly compressed and limited in quantity. The ultraviolet image results from Susei were very limited as well, and were of course pre-internet era. I hope that they will improve their releases if they have a successful imaging mission.

[Phil Stooke]

This page:

http://pds-smallbodies.astro.umd.edu/missi...busa/index.html

gives some information on plans for data archiving. It looks as if PDS will hold the Hayabusa archive. Which is good news for everybody, I would say.

Arival in mid-September... Darn! I'll be on vacation at the time. I'll have to sneak into an internet cafe for my fix.

Phil

[maycm]

Distance to target:

July 21st : 97,614Km
August 1st : 63,0808km

Closer....closer...

[tedstryk]

This looks cool:

In-situ exploration of the surface of asteroid Itokawa by MINERVA engineering rover on board HAYABUSA
Sho Sasaki
Tetsuo Yoshimitsu
Masahisa Yanagisawa
Hajime Yano
Keisuke Teramoto




National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
ISAS/JAXA
Univ. Electro-Comm.
ISAS/JAXA
ISAS/JAXA




ISAS/JAXA in Japan has launched an engineering spacecraft Hayabusa to Itokawa, a small S-type asteroid with approximate size 600m x 300m. A small rover called MINERVA (MIcro/Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid) is on board HAYABUSA. The rover has a hexadecagonal shape with diameter 12cm and heigh 10cm. Weight of the rover is 591g. MINERVA, which is the first asteroid rover in the world, will be deployed onto the surface of Itokawa at altitude around 17m shortly before the surface sampling touch-down of Hayabusa. After landing on the surface, MINERVA moves over the surface autonomously by hopping for a couple of days. On rotating a torquer inside the rover, a reaction force against the surface friction can hop the rover. MINERVA has three CCD cameras (RGB color) to capture surface images. Two of the cameras consist of a stereo pair and have short focal length to observe nearby targets, and the last camera has focal length to observe more distant targets. To protect solar cells, MINERVA has 16 pins sticking out of both ends of the body. Six of the pins are thermal probes by which variation of surface temperature is directly measured. The scientific objectives of MINERVA are as follows: (1) To obtain images of the asteroid surface in visible wavelength. (2) To construct a detailed surface model especially using stereo images taken by short-focal length pair cameras. To discuss presence and characteristics (sand/rock ratio etc.) of surface regolith. (3) To obtain the brightness and color variation of the surface especially for discussing the ongoing space weathering. (4) To investigate the thermal properties of the surface regolith from temperature history of the same place. (5) To measure local gravity direction and surface friction coefficient.
Presenting author: Sho Sasaki