[X] My Assistant

[ElkGroveDan]

getting closer...keep in mind these are from a wide-angle lens

[Phil Stooke]

And the next...



JAXA/ISAS image

Phil

[mchan]

The Planetary Society, 2 November 2005

http://planetary.org/news/2005/1102_Hayabu...id_Mission.html

When Hayabusa aims its first target marker at the asteroid's surface on Friday,
it will function as a beacon that reflects in response to a signal from the
spacecraft, helping guide the spacecraft to the best drop-point to insure
Minerva gets to the chosen landing site. Tucked inside this first target marker
is an aluminum sheet bearing the names of 880,000 Earthlings gathered by The
Planetary Society of Japan in 2002, to be a part of Itokawa for a long time to
come.

"That [sheet of names] will sit on the surface of Itokawa for a billion
years or so," Yeomans estimated.

According to one of the links on the JAXA website, Itokawa has a chance of impacting an inner planet, or its orbit becomes larger than Jupiter's. So the sheet of names will be around for a billion years if the asteroid doesn't collide with a planet before then.

[ElkGroveDan]

DESCENT ABORTED!

From JAXA's site:
Due to a detection of anomalous signal at GO/NOGO decision, today's descent, including release of MINERVA and the target marker has been canceled.

Nothing more at this point.

[Phil Stooke]

Rats! Oh well, at least I can go to bed now.

Phil

[imran]

Rats!  Oh well, at least I can go to bed now.

Phil

Bummer. I was so hyped up about this. Hopefully they can troubleshoot the problem and try their luck again.

[edstrick]

Probably a software error. that's why they were doing the "Practice" descent!

[Bob Shaw]

The Hayabusa probe is stationed over a giant asteroid some 300 million km from Earth.

The BBC's definition of 'giant asteroid' obviously differs from mine!

What adjective are they going to use when Dawn flys!

James

James:

It's easy - Ceres and Vesta are obviously both planets!

(ducks and runs)

Bob Shaw

[odave]

I hope debugging doesn't take too long. After the second reaction wheel failed, they indicated that they'd have enough fuel left for the mission if everything proceeded normally. I don't know how much margin there is for extended station keeping.

[tedstryk]

I wonder if Minerva can be dropped off on the same swoop as a sampling is done.

[odave]

I suppose there is a subset of mission goals that can still be accomplished if they eventually do run too low on fuel for Earth return & re-entry. Certainly they could still drop off Minerva and let her bounce around. I think that going through the sample collection process would still be valuable even if they couldn't get home, as it would test the all the engineering behind the collection process. Are there sensors on Hayabusa to confirm if samples have been collected after firing the impactor?

Of course, I'm hoping that they'll be able to figure out the problem quickly and proceed with the entire mission.

[TheChemist]

An SDC forum member from Japan, Suzuka, posted the news conference transcript after the rehearsal abort, you can find it here.
It is automaticaly translated, so the syntax is funny at times, but nevertheless contains a lot of information.

[hal_9000]

Any video feed?

[RNeuhaus]

Any video feed?

Nope. You can check at http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/...usa/today.shtml
for any news. Up to now there are no any news about the next approach to Itokawa.

Rodolfo

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

JAXA now says ( http://www.hayabusa.isas.jaxa.jp/e/index.html ) that another advance rehearsal will indeed be attempted before the first sampling run -- which means the schedule is getting awfully crowded. (It turns out that Minerva apparently cannot be dropped during one of the actual sampling runs. It's supposed to be dropped at 17 meters altitude, while the landing markers -- which are now "softballs" covered with reflective mirrors -- are dropped at 30 meters.)

Meanwhile, note the spectacular new photos at http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/snews/2005/1102.shtml#pic001 -- which, among other things, indicate the precise locations for the two sampling landings, along with more acquired science data about Itokawa. (These are the same photos I saw for the first time at the COMPLEX meeting.) Thanks to Emily Lakdawalla for the lead to the new photos' URL.