* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) mission

Blobrana · L

Space capsule probed for asteroid dust

Tempering curiosity with caution, Japanese planetary scientists and their US colleagues are carefully preparing to open the recovery capsule from the Hayabusa spacecraft, which returned to Earth on 13 June following a spectacular high-speed re-entry over the Australian outback. If they're lucky, they may find a speck or two of material from asteroid 25143 Itokawa that could hold clues to the early days of the Solar System. But even if Hayabusa has returned empty, it will have given a boost to future asteroid missions.
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Blobrana · L

Researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have begun extracting materials from a sample container that the asteroid probe Hayabusa brought home to Earth earlier this month.
The agency, which started unsealing the two-tiered, cylindrical container, succeeded in collecting a small amount of gas when researchers tapped the outer container. They will carefully analyse the gas to see if any portion of it is from the asteroid Itokawa.
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Blobrana · L

Hayabusa asteroid capsule opening gets under way

Japanese scientists have begun to open the Hayabusa asteroid capsule.
The canister, which returned to Earth on 13 June, is being worked on at the Japanese space agency's (Jaxa) Sagamihara Campus in Kanagawa.
It is hoped the vessel will contain small amounts of dust grabbed from the surface of asteroid Itokawa by a spacecraft in 2005.
Researchers said they had already detected a trace gas in the capsule but had yet to identify it.
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Blobrana · L

JAXA collects trace amount of gas from capsule brought by Hayabusa

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Blobrana · L

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has collected a trace amount of gas from inside the return capsule released by the Hayabusa unmanned space probe.
The gas may be from vaporised material from the surface of asteroid Itokawa.

Blobrana · L

Capsule from Hayabusa space probe arrives in Japan

The capsule from the Hayabusa space probe that was sent to collect mineral samples from the asteroid Itokawa returned home to Japan on the night of June 17.
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Blobrana · L

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Tuesday it has asked the London-based Guinness World Records to recognise the Hayabusa space probe's flight to and from the asteroid Itokawa.
JAXA said it wants Guinness certification for the first-ever round trip to a heavenly body other than the moon and the longest round-trip flight.
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Blobrana · L

A Tucson scientist was part of the recovery team for a seven-year Japanese mission that could provide the first asteroid sample ever returned to Earth.
The big question now is whether the successful Hayabusa mission, which streaked through Earths atmosphere to a landing in the Australian outback, was able to gather a small sample from Asteroid (25143) Itokawa during a brief touchdown on the rocky orb. If so, it would be a portent of a more ambitious Tucson-based sample-gathering mission to an asteroid that may follow in a few years.
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Blobrana · L

The canister, which is believed to hold the first samples ever grabbed from the surface of an asteroid, will now be shipped to Tokyo.
The Japanese space agency (Jaxa) says the capsule looks to be intact.
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