Saturday, November 26, 2005
Hayabusa has landed!
Image credit JAXA.Plucky little Hayabusa keeps on keeping on. Despite losing most of it gyroscopes, losing the robot probe Minerva and being plagued with communications problems, Hayabusa succeeded in touching down on the asteroid Itokawa. This is the first probe ever to land on an asteroid, and is a ground breaking feat. Hayabusa didn't take any surface samples this time, but there will be a new attempt on 7.00 pm November 26th (Japanese Standard time, UTC +9, so that is around 9.00 pm AEDST and 8.30 pm ACDST). Check out the JAXA site to see if they do live blogging this time.
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:35 am 
Comments:
<< Home
Actually... in 2001 the NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) spacecraft survived touching down on the asteroid Eros. (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/02/12/near.landing.02/). It wasn't however, part of the original mission plan.
# posted by 
: 4:56 am
: 4:56 am
Yeah, I messed up on that one. How could I forget NEAR? Hayabusa is the first spacecraft to touch down and take off from an asteroid :-)
Post a Comment
<< Home
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
