Scientists hunt for asteroid probe in space

By Isabel Reynolds

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese scientists were trying to track
a space probe almost 300 million km (186 million miles) from
earth on Sunday, on a mission to bring back the world’s first
samples from an asteroid.

The unmanned Hayabusa probe — the name means “falcon” in
Japanese — had been due to land on the surface of the
548-metre-long asteroid 25143 Itokawa for just one second after
a voyage of two and a half years.

But it was unclear whether the probe had completed its
delicate mission, a spokesman for the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency said.

“The probe launched a landing target marker from a height
of 40 meters, then descended to a position 17 meters from the
asteroid,” said a spokesman for JAXA. “We are not certain what
happened after that.”

Scientists were in communication with the probe and
analyzing data to try to calculate its exact position, thought
to be close to the asteroid, but it was unclear whether there
had been a technical problem, he said.

Asteroids, unlike larger space bodies such as the moon, are
believed to contain rocks that have remained largely unchanged
since the early days of the solar system and can thus offer
valuable information about its origins.

Information about structure could also be vital if an
asteroid were found to be on a collision course with the Earth.

Hayabusa was to have landed on Itokawa for just long enough
to allow it to fire a metal pellet into its surface and collect
a sample of the material stirred up by the impact.

Failure would be an embarrassment for Japan’s space
industry, recently overshadowed by Asian rival China’s success
in carrying out manned space flights — something Japan has
never attempted.

Hayabusa has already sent back a series of detailed
photographs of the asteroid, which Japanese media noted looked
something like a potato. In the most recent photograph, taken
on Sunday and published on JAXA’s Web site, the probe’s shadow
can be made out on Itokawa’s surface.

But the mission has also been dogged by problems.

Last week it failed in an attempt to launch a miniature
robot onto the asteroid’s surface to collect data. The robot,
the Minerva, went missing after being released from the probe.

The 500-kg (1,100-lb) Hayabusa has also developed a problem
with its positioning control system, while a solar flare
damaged its wing-like solar panels.

The mission is scheduled to carry out two touchdowns on the
asteroid before Hayabusa heads back to earth, where the sample
is due to land in the Australian outback in June 2007, four
years after the probe was launched.

Itokawa is named after pioneering Japanese rocket scientist
Hideo Itokawa.