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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
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/
I don't care what they actually do - as long as the Japanese space program keeps naming its missions after ninjas, I'm there.
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.
"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
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.