Thejapanese probeHayabusa he returned to earth yesterdayafter completing the mission that began in 2003 to theasteroide Itokawa, with the aim of collecting samples and gathering data on the formation and origins of the Solar System.
Hayabusa (which means “peregrine falcon”)released a capsuleweighing 17 kilosthat hit the Australian Woomera Desert. The capsule entered the atmosphere at 1:51 p.m. GMT, about three hours after it detached from the mothership, said Makoto Miwada, a spokesman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Return to the Land ofHayabusa was led by a team of experts from the Japanese aerospace agency and NASA with the information received through antennas located in the Mojave desert, in California (USA), another near Madrid (Spain) and the one located at outskirts of Canberra (Australia).
ProbeHayabusa, with a budget close to 107 million euros, was launched in May 2003 from the Uchinoura space center, in Japan, with the mission ofinvestigate various engineering technologies designed to collect planetary samples and bring them back to Earth for study. The 510 kg satellite, equipped with four xenon engines, carried out scientific observations for two months on the mineral composition, altitude and reflection of sunlight inItokawa, until in November 2005 it landed on the asteroid, on whose surface it remained for about half an hour.
“Hayabusa will bethe first space mission in which physical contact was made with an asteroid and then returned to Earth“, explained Tommy Thompson, NASA’s head of cooperation in the project undertaken by the Japanese agency.
In the event that the container contains the expected samples, the scientists calculate that a year of continuous research will be necessary to determine their characteristics. Examination of these small particles can help adunravel details of the history of the solar systemand questions about the formation of planets more than 4.5 billion years ago.
