Hayabusa Probe Lands on Asteroid After All

pin_gween writes "Reuters.UK is reporting the the Hayabusa space probe successfully landed on the asteroid Itokawa. JAXA officials are trying to determine whether to attempt another landing. The probe has had a series of glitches, and failed to drop a set of instruments upon landing."

Comments

I bet

[netkid91]

You can turn JAXA into AJAX using only two moves. Anyways....why did they send the probe up anyways

Re:I bet

[geomon]

Anyways....why did they send the probe up anyways

For the same reason we send robots into hazardous environments - it is too dangerous to justify sending humans.

We need to know how to land on asteroids. That skill might become valuable someday.

Re:I bet

[Billosaur]

For the same reason we send robots into hazardous environments - it is too dangerous to justify sending humans.

Of course it's dangerous! It's space! Vacuum, radiation, and all that. And yes, unmanned probes do a wonderful job scouting things out (look at the Voyager probes and the Mars rovers). But unless we're planning to colonize Mars with von Neumann robots and allow them to become an advanced civilization bent on destroying humanity (cue Battlestar Galactica theme [the old one]), Mankind is eventually going out there to face the hazards.

This is the same argument they made when the idea of going to the Moon came up. Jerome Wiesner, head of the Presidential Science Advisory Committee recomended to Kennedy that unmanned Moon probes would be more cost effective and just as useful in beating the Russians. But the Russian had been besting us in human spaceflight, not probes (it seems like every probe they tried to send to Mars crashed or missed the planet) and in the end, men went to the Moon, though the Surveyor and Ranger probes went there first to scope things out.

What it comes down to is that there are alway Nervous Nellies who look at the expense and/or danger factor involved in something and go "we shouldn't do that" while simultaneously hiding under their beds. The movement of Mankind to space is inevitable, just as Columbus, Magellan, Cook, the Wright Brothers, and Lindbergh leading us into new frontiers was in their time. You can't stop progress, and anyone who thinks we're going to sit here on our over-crowded, polution-tinged rock and let the robots have all the fun is kidding themselves.

Besides, I want a job as an asteroid rockhound.

Waiting for the naysayers...

[Techguy666]

With the number of setbacks the probe has had,I was honestly surprised to hear they made a relatively successful landing (minus the tool deployment). Considering the number of people out there claiming the first lunar landing never happened, I'm also surprised that there aren't more skeptics out there demanding more proof that the probe did land on the asteroid and that this isn't doctored data to help the Japanese space agency save face. I mean, hitting a fast moving target with a glitchy probe is an amazing feat. I guess this isn't a major space agency and this isn't a major project compared to NASA and the first manned lunar landing, so it's not going to attract the attention of the fringe...

Bummer

[Chr0nik]

I guess third time is not a charm, pretty good college try for their fledgeling space agency. I hope they do better on their ramp up to build a base on the moon by 2025. These kinds of problems on a mission like that could spell disaster. I wonder if anyone over there is thinking, "Maybe we should just stick with robots."

Re:Asteriod rides for deep space exploration?

[david.given]

Does anybody know whether we could use asteroids to transport probes around space? Wouldn't an asteroid potential provide a fast and free transportation system? Wouldn't an asteroid potential provide a fast and free transportation system?

No, not really... because in order to get to the asteroid, you've got to match orbits with it, which means that you're already going to whereever the asteroid is going.

Wouldn't they provide rudmentary protection against space radaition somewhat?

This might be more useful, but given that the only major cause of radiation in space is the sun, and shielding machines against solar radiation isn't actually that hard, it's probably not worth it.

If you ask me, NASA and other space agencies should be firing out probes like crazy.

Absolutely.

Given that we now have two designs of Mars probe that have proven to be wildly successful --- the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and the Pathfinder lander --- I think that the right think to do now is to mass produce them, bulk launch them, and drop a dozen of each on Mars. Because the design's been finalised, the cost per probe should be a fraction of what it was for the original; just work from the blueprints. And because you're launching lots, you can stand a higher failure rate, so you can target more interesting parts of the planet. That way you should be able to get some seriously interesting science, very cheaply.

(The reason why all the Mars probes are showing really boring bits of desert is because they've been deliberately targeted at wide, flat areas to increase the chances that they'll get down safely.)

projection

[msbsod]

Over a distance of 3x10^11 m they land on an object only 548 m long. The corresponding opening angle is so small that my calculator cannot do the math.

Congratulations!

Anyone know whether...

[scrwvwls]

Hayabusa has dropped that plaque bearing the names of Steven Spielberg and Arthur C. Clarke, and if not, might there still a chance on the next approach?!?