William Atkins
Friday, 12 June 2009 20:12
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
The Japanese government announced June 11, 2009 that its Hayabusa spacecraft will be sent on a course that will simulate the trajectory of an asteroid so its astronomers can improve their abilities to track near Earth objects that could potentially hit Earth.
The
Hayabusa spacrcraft is on its way back to Earth after a successful mission collecting dusty samples from the asteroid Itokawa (25143 Itokawa).
It soft landed on the asteroid and collected samples of the dusty material surrounding the asteroid. Now, its mission is to return the samples to Earth.
However, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) planners decided to get the most they could out of the probe’s mission. As planned, the spacecraft will still deploy a small canister containing the samples so scientists on Earth can analyze its contents.
However, an unexpected additional to its mission will occur when the main part of the probe will be directed to collide with Earth so its scientists can track its trajectory.
This is being done because its course will be similar to that taken by a near Earth asteroid that is about to collide with Earth.
JAXA spokesperson Akinori Hashimoto, states,
"Even though Hayabusa is not actually an asteroid, it will be on a path that will cause it to collide with the Earth in the same way as an asteroid.” [National Geographic News: “
Asteroid Probe Set to "Collide" With Earth”]
Hashimoto adds, "
We will monitor its movements, and the data will enable us to accurately predict the future paths of asteroids that are on course to come close to the Earth."
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