{"id":16491,"date":"2015-03-09T22:25:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T14:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/japans-hayabusa-2-asteroid-mission-checks-out\/"},"modified":"2015-03-09T22:25:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T14:25:57","slug":"japans-hayabusa-2-asteroid-mission-checks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/japans-hayabusa-2-asteroid-mission-checks-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Hayabusa 2 asteroid mission checks out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft. Credit: JAXA\/Akihiro Ikeshita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three months into an interplanetary cruise expected to last three-and-a-half years, Japan\u2019s $300 million Hayabusa 2 mission is in good health as it begins an ion-powered pursuit of an asteroid to return a piece of it to Earth.<\/p>\n

The robotic spacecraft is already traveling more than 20 million miles from Earth after launching Dec. 3, and Japanese officials say the probe has passed health checks and is ready for the long-distance journey ahead.<\/p>\n

The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft \u201ccompleted its initial functional confirmation period on March 2, 2015, as all scheduled checkout and evaluation of acquired data were completed,\u201d the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a statement. \u201cThe explorer has been under inspection for about three months after its launch on Dec. 3, 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

The probe carries four ion thrusters to nudge it on course toward asteroid 1999 JU3, a carbon-rich world just 900 meters \u2014 about 3,000 feet \u2014 across with a tenuous gravity field 60,000 times weaker than Earth\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The engines produce little thrust, but the units can be operated for thousands of hours, building up energy to reshape Hayabusa 2\u2019s path around the sun.<\/p>\n

JAXA says two of the ion engines will fire for about 400 hours in March to give the spacecraft a boost. Two thrusters will be operated again in early June.<\/p>\n

The two periods of near-continuous propulsion will change the probe\u2019s velocity by about 60 meters per second, or 134 mph, to align Hayabusa 2 with an encounter with Earth in December. The close flyby of Earth will use the planet\u2019s gravity to slingshot Hayabusa 2 toward its destination, where it is due to arrive in June 2018 after more firings of the craft\u2019s ion engines.<\/p>\n

Since Hayabusa 2\u2019s launch in early December, ground controllers tested the probe\u2019s X-band and Ka-band communications systems, batteries, science instruments, reaction wheels, and all four ion engines. Hayabusa 2 also extended its sampling device in preparation for scooping up material at the asteroid.<\/p>\n

\"Diagram
Diagram of the positions of Earth, Hayabusa 2, and asteroid 1999 JU3 as of March 3, 2015. Credit: JAXA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Engineers tested Hayabusa 2\u2019s German-built lander named MASCOT built by the same team that managed the Philae comet lander, which was carried aboard Europe\u2019s Rosetta spacecraft and touched down on comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November.<\/p>\n

Three other landing craft built in Japan will also descend to the asteroid during Hayabusa 2\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

The landers are mobile and will use mechanisms to hop across the asteroid to study its environment from several locations.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa 2 will spend a year-and-a-half at asteroid 1999 JU3, enough time for the probe to pick up rock specimens from three different locations on the unexplored asteroid.<\/p>\n

Once the mission\u2019s work at the asteroid is complete, Hayabusa 2 will leave and head for Earth in December 2019.<\/p>\n

Hayabusa 2 will release a container with the asteroid samples for a blazing re-entry through Earth\u2019s atmosphere for a parachute-assisted landing in the Australian outback in December 2020.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist\u2019s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft. Credit: JAXA\/Akihiro Ikeshita Three months into an interplanetary cruise expected to last three-and-a-half years, Japan\u2019s $300 million Hayabusa 2 mission is in good health as it begins an ion-powered pursuit of an asteroid to return a piece of it to Earth. The robotic spacecraft is already traveling more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2882,1519,1965,877,2862],"class_list":["post-16491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid-1999-ju3","tag-asteroids","tag-hayabusa-2","tag-jaxa","tag-mascot"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}