|
|
|||
The Planetary Society BlogBy Emily LakdawallaHayabusa's coming homeApr. 21, 2010 | 08:12 PDT | 15:12 UTC
It really looks like Hayabusa is going to make it home. Hayabusa's sample return capsule will be returning to Earth on June 13, 2010, landing in the Woomera Prohibited Area, Australia at about 14:00 UTC. These basic facts have been a matter of public knowledge for a while, but became official today with an announcement from the Australian Ministry of Defence. The release quotes Australian Defence Minister Senator John Faulkner as saying: "Australian authorities will assist JAXA in ensuring the recovery of the spacecraft on its return and are working closely with their Japanese counterparts on the proposed path and landing of Hayabusa."
Hayabusa has survived solar flare damage to his solar panels. He's survived damage to his chemical thruster system that resulted in the loss of all of his hydrazine maneuvering fuel. He fell out of contact with Earth for so long that his return has been delayed for three years from the original plan. All but one reaction wheel have failed. They've had to employ solar sailing techniques to maintain three-axis stabilization. When all but one of the four ion engines failed, they somehow managed to rig parts of two of the failed engines to work together to act as one. Now, Hayabusa is almost home. He's on course to return to Earth; all that remains is to guide the spacecraft to the correct entry point and release the sample return capsule -- then find it once it lands in the desert. Based on how things have gone with the mission in the past, I am viewing the coming two months with some trepidation -- what else can go wrong? -- but I am hoping against hope that not only will they return the capsule, they'll find something inside it. (It's possible that the sample grabbing mechanism did not function correctly. We won't know until we can crack the lid open.) There is a presentation online that contains a few more details about what we can expect to happen over the coming two months. It was presented by Yukio Shimizu, Manager of ISAS' Safety and Quality Assurance Office, to the 22nd Microelectronics Workshop (or MEWS) on October 15, 2009. The first slide shows the plans for the upcoming Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (or TCMs, to acronym-happy engineers). The first three planned TCMs, to take place from March through May, will continue to aim the spacecraft safely off the edge of Earth. It's only very close to the end of the mission, in June, when the final two TCMs will aim the spacecraft toward Australia.
The second slide from Shimizu's presentation shows the plans for landing the sample return capsule in the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) in southern Australia, an area administered by Australia's Department of Defence. You might think -- "oh, that's like the Nevada Test Range," but I Googled them both and the Nevada Test Range is only three percent the size of the WPA. Australia and the United States are comparable in terms of area but the United States has nothing like the vast, open, nearly unpopulated areas of Australia. The capsule will be coming in on June 13 on a trajectory a bit north of west, having the same sense of motion as Earth's rotation; four tracking stations will look for the punch-bowl-sized capsule as it falls to the ground.
Post this page to:
CommentsThis comment form is powered by GentleSource Comment Script. It can be included in PHP or HTML files and allows visitors to leave comments on the website.
|
|||||||||
Copyright © 1993 – 2010 The Planetary Society. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Society Updates
[ what is this? ]
[But really, whether he lands or makes "a rimshot" (which I take it will enable to land the sample return anyway), whether it contains sampled material or not, it is an engaging machine, adventure, and group of people never giving up on him.]