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MUSES-C Launched

Posted by michael on from the lead-time dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "If all goes well, Japans MUSES-C asteroid probe will be bringing back samples from an asteroid in less than five years. Launched friday afternoon at 1:29 pm (local time) the probe should reach its target in June of 2005. The MUSES-C probe will collect surface samples of asteroid 1998SF36 totaling 1 gram, including sand and stone fragments, two years later before returning to the Earth in June 2007, researchers said."

2 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How will they retrieve the samples? by molo · · Score: 2, Informative

    FYI, old spy satellites used to drop rolls of film. I'm not sure about the mechanism though.

    -molo

    --
    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
  2. Re:How will they retrieve the samples? by robslimo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Still no complete answer, but I found this link:

    http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc011698.html

    Excerpt: Muses-C spacecraft will also fire explosive charges into the asteroid, collect the samples that are ejected from the impacts, and return the samples to Earth in a capsule for
    laboratory analysis

    and this:

    http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/enterp/science/lunapla.h tm l

    In this mission, the spacecraft will land on the asteroid surface, sample the surface rocks/soils and encapsulate them into a container. We will recover the samples carried by the entry capsule which will provide us with many findings of primitive bodies in the solar system.

    -robSlimo