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Hayabusa Earth Flyby Swings Toward Asteroid
An anonymous reader writes "As the first of its kind to return asteroid samples to Earth, the Japanese Hayabusa mission took pictures this week during its successful Earth flyby. Eventually headed to the asteroid belt, the probe will feature a novel sample collection 'horn' which hops around on the asteroid's surface and lands intermittently for only a second at a time. The samples will be dust clouds fired up from repeated bullet impacts, since the asteroid's low gravity makes it difficult to 'land' on. When faced with a similar problem, the European Rosetta mission alternatively will harpoon the surface to hang on while also touching down on another small-mass asteroid."
Your father has been killed in a duel with an asteroid and you are given his magic horn to avenge his death. Press start to play!
(Note for the people who don't get the reference, Hayabusa was the last name of the Ninja in the Ninja Gaiden games)
In Soviet Russia the asteroids land on you! I'm sorry I had to.
Hayabusa, which is Japanese for "falcon", will act much like its namesake, descending to the asteroid's surface, capturing its prey and returning it to Earth.
Presumably it'll let go of it before coming back? otherwise it'll be the biggest space sample ever collected.
Photographing everything in sight.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Rube Goldberg would be proud!
Imagine the looks on the faces of those in control as the asteroid pops like a balloon... :)
I was really confused with that "Swings towards" phase..
Ah well, one can never tell these days...
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Aha! We know who you are unixbugs, or should I say, Darth Vader.
Check out this awesome photo of the Moon and Earth together, taken by Galileo more than a decade ago during its Earth flyby.
"Studies have shown that people who eat peanuts live longer than those who do not eat."
The article has an artist's impression of Muses-C doing its thing. Takes me back to the old books I used to read that were full of airbrush pictures - artist's impressions of futuristic space missions. There's something inspiring about that style that computer graphics have never been able to replicate.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I don't care what they actually do - as long as the Japanese space program keeps naming its missions after ninjas, I'm there.
Very good, very good, now please, how many people did that to me? Could it have been one?
Depends on the name. Some, like William or Michael sound foreign, but in a good way. Others, like Bacha (a common last name) would be considered funny since that means 'idiot' in Japanese :). (PS: I'm not Japanese, but work with some).
Maybe this article should be under the Anime section
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Taking off from Kagoshima in southern Japan on its 22 month outbound trip, the Muses-C space probe is scheduled to visit the 1998 SF36 asteroid, 186 million miles from Earth, and bring back a single gram of rock in four years' time.
I bet on the street you could get at least 100 bones for that gram rock.
I'm surprised I never heard of this project before! It's a great idea - astroids contain various minerals that can be used to trace the evolution of the solar system. Of course we have some access to this info from the odd meteorite, but I would guess that rock from the astroid belt will be more "pristine".
... ranges in size from dust particles to rock chunks as big as Alaska.
The only drawback I see for this project is that it is only going to sample the surface of the asteroid, which is the region most exposed to cosmic radiation, cratering, and accumulated dust. Naturally there is still something to be learned from that, but I hope this is just a prelude to a more advanced mission to bore larger samples from the asteroides. I imagine that the difficulties in doing that come mostly from stabilizing the spacecraft, given that it's likely the asteroids are actually loosely bound collections of the rubble left over from previous collisions. Of course, if they're not, that would be interesting too.
And slightly off topic - I think this comparison is funny:
The material in the belt
Exactly how do you compare a large, roughly spherical mass to "the size of Alaska"? Maybe they mean the surface area is the same? The surface area of Alaska is about 1.5 million km-squared; the surface area of Ceres, the largest asteroid, is about 11 million km-squared - that's more like the total area of the US (9.6 million km-squared)!
Or maybe they meant to compare the radii? If Alaska were circular, it would have a radius of 690 km. The radius of Ceres is 466 km. Interestingly, a better comparison in this case would be the size of France (effective radius of 420 km), and France is of course the international standard for measuring astronomical objects... Did you know that the base of Olympus Mons is also about the size of France?
Don't forget about Fighter Hayabusa.
A winner is you!
God damnit.
... er... energy.
What's all this fuss about some measily satellite doing the job?
Why don't the Japanese just send Ultraman up there and just bring the asteriod back to Tokyo? He'll need to fly fast; he has only 3 minutes of ejaculation
When faced with a similar problem, the European Rosetta mission alternatively will harpoon the surface to hang on while also touching down on another small-mass asteroid.
This gives me a mental image of the scene in Mission to Mars, where the crew snagged the satellite that was conveniently in orbit around Mars (and crash-landed it to the surface). Although not an identical scenario, this really is the stuff of sci-fi movies, in this particular case.
A love beyond compare...
I know that that image is probably "enhanced" by an artist, but come on! The sun is glaring in the lens, yet the moon and earth are full, meaning the sun would be BEHIND the spacecraft... even if it is artistic license, they should try to make the image a little more realistic, it's still spectacular...
Welcome our new asteroid hopping overlords.
"To face death, that's nothing much. But to feel really stupid when you die, well, that would be insufferable."
"The samples will be dust clouds fired up from repeated bullet impacts, since the asteroid's low gravity makes it difficult to 'land' on. When faced with a similar problem, the European Rosetta mission alternatively will harpoon the surface."
-NOW- who's weaponizing space? Looks like the Japanese and Europeans. This is a threat to our national security! We have a space harpoon capability gap! Mr.President, we recommend making a space harpoon that is two times bigger than the european's space harpoon... to deter them from attacking more asteroids.
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
Certainly taking this to the next level as compared with the NEAR (Nasa Probe) that was not designed to bring back material.
While this is an improvement, it still only scratches the surface as it will only bring back "up to one gram of material". Also, consider that the gram of material is from the very surface of the asteroid, which is most likely contaminated by other collisions. Still quite an accomplishment if they can recover the material in 2007 as predicted.
We'd better hope the asteroid isn't inhabited; first we're going to shoot at the resident aliens, then we're going to bring them back to Earth? Fred Hoyle must be turning over in his grave...
Have you read my blog lately?
...mission took pictures this week during its successful Earth flyby.
Scientist 1: "Hmmmm. There are beings on that blue planet."
Scientist 2: "What are they doing?"
Scientist 1: "Let's see. One female is dragging around a naked male on a pet leash in the middle of a war."
Scientist: 3: "I suggest we abort this mission and leave them alone before they find out about us and come here."
Scientists in unison: "Agreed! Abort."
Table-ized A.I.
A Space Hayabusa
Please? I'd hate to be the only dork out there....
I knew the Suzuki Hayabusa was fast, but I didn't realize it could reach escape velocity. Space-faring motorcycles... who'da thunk it.
So this probe is going to fire a bullet to collect a sample?
What happens when the probe is pushed back from the recoil?
During yearly meetings of the world's astronomical organization, to which Japan is a member, resolutions on the rules of sample collection are made and each year strong resolutions are passed to make it more difficult to justify "scientific" collecting and to discourage "scientific" collecting in asteroid belts. Past attempts by Japan to use pollution research as a justification for catching asteriods in outer space have been defeated, and a request by Japan for an "interim" quota of 50 samples has been defeated. Additionally, Japan's attempt to have the legality of the outer space research questioned has been defeated. In past years, and again in 2004, resolutions were made strongly requesting Japan to halt its scientific research in outer space.
Japan is now using the same argument to justify its latest research, involving Japanese Hayabusa mission firing repeated bullets at asteroids. The mission has stirred outrage among other signatories to the asteriod research treaty. Recently, the US State Department has threatened to block Japanese imports under an American law authorizing penalties against any nation that violates a space weponization treaty. The United States is justified in invoking the so-called Smelly Amendment, which authorizes trade sanctions. The rest of the international community should follow suit.
The Japanese say that the West is culturally arrogant in asking them to abandon asteroid research.
Japanese astroscientist --eureka, we have landed on asteroid! Taken samples! Flying back now!
Japanese businessman-- Great! Excellent! Well done! Can't wait to see the results!
~~~~~ later on, after successful recovery ~~~~
Japnese astroscientist -- Great! We have compreted analysis! Have all the asteroid samples, full print out!
Japanese business man (gleefully wringing hands, nodding eagerly) GIMMEGIMMEEGIMMEE!
Japnese businessman reads slowly, once, then again......
"Dark clouds" over face....
HEY! THIS *&^%^^** IS JUST SOME GROUND UP ROCK AND SOME SCRAP IRON, WE GOT MOUNTAINS OF SCRAP IRON SITTING OUTSIDE IN THE TOWN DUMP!!!
Japnese astroscientist -- So? What you expect? We got asteroids all over planet, always ground up rock, some iron, not worth much....
Japanese businessman --WE YOU PAID 50 TRILLION YEN FOR THIS!!!
Japanese astroscientist (to himself while smirking) --"finally, my minor in biz administration pays off, sell the sizzle, not the steak..."
...I figured these "scientists" would see the International Red Cross, or Jimmy Carter's work on Habitat For Humanity, and correctly assume that friendly relations with Earth were not only possible, but likely.
But hey, if it pleases you to assume that all alien researchers are stupid fucking idiots, who am I to disagree?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
forgive my lack of physics l33t skillz...
are the asteroids in question of sufficient mass so as their orbits won't be effected by harpooning, shooting, and horning (?) them?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
According to "Moons and Planets" by W. Hartmann, the total mass of asteroids is 3x10^21 kg, "only about 4% the mass of the moon."
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
You are not alone. I'm a motorcycle dork ("Ninja" 250 and a Triumph Trophy 1200) so that was this first thing to come to mind.
Consider this:
A large asteroid is basically a several thousand ton chunk of nearly pure iron. Think what that would be worth.
1. Build a space probe.
2. Have space probe guide asteroid into Earth orbit.
3. Safely bring asteroid down to Earth's surface.
4. Sell asteroid to local scrap iron dealer for $50/ton.
5. Profit!!
The best part would be watching the rednecks at the scrap yard trying to fit the asteroid into the car crusher. Implementation of the first three steps is left as an exercise to the reader.
Unknown host pong.
Two probes head toward Earth, dragging asteroids and muttering sterilize...sterilize...
Ano sa... I think you're looking for Baka, not 'Bacha'.
Hayabusa, which is Japanese for "falcon",...
Specifically, a peregrine falcon, which is the fastest animal in the world. It can reach speeds of 440 kph (275 mph) when diving for its prey. This also accounts for the name of the fastest road bike in the world, the Suzuki Hayabusa. Impressive stuff...
Obviously, it's about France wide by Alaska deep.
Laws are for people with no friends.
The only real value those asteroid metals have, is already being up there. If you would be building a space-factory or -station it could be cheaper to mine an asteroid than to ship metals up from Earth.
But for use on Earth it's way cheaper to dig a hole to get those metals than to launch the equipment to mine the asteroids.
And we haven't overtly violated it yet. But the giga dollars we spent on x-ray lasers powered by nukes during the Regan years didn't go for nothing. They were fully developed well before we quit underground nuclear testing;
Bullets and harpoons kinda pale before a foot-thick x-ray beam with 30% of the power of a multi-kiloton nuke. The vapor of the target BECOMES a kinetic weapon to things close to it.
America is just waiting for someone else to get caught weaponizing space before we start implementing such things.
Shh. Details. ;)
:(
Hey, I don't see the name 'Bacha' very often. I assumed it sounded like 'Bah-cha'.
Then again - they may be like "Oddworld" and eat other intelligent species on their planet - they may identify with movies like "Silence Of The Lambs" and ask us for our BBQ recipe.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny