EDITORIAL: The Hayabusa mission

The space probe Hayabusa lived up to people's expectations by completing its mission earlier this week.

The initial plan was for the craft to travel 300 million kilometers and touch down on the asteroid Itokawa before returning to Earth. But that was deemed too ambitious to be viable. Nevertheless, Hayabusa made it. In doing so, it became the first spacecraft to travel to a heavenly body other than our moon and return home. Hayabusa, which means falcon, re-entered the atmosphere Sunday and burned up. Its feat can be called truly historic.

A capsule, which scientists hope contains dust and other particles collected from the surface of Itokawa, detached from the probe during the re-entry process. The capsule landed intact in the Australian Outback, where it was recovered Monday.

Scientists believe the composition of the asteroid has remained unchanged since the birth of our solar system. When the capsule returns to Japan, its contents will be analyzed. If Hayabusa did, in fact, collect dust particles from the asteroid's surface, that would be another historic feat.

Hayabusa was launched in 2003, the fictional year of the birth of Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), the iconic sci-fi cartoon character created by Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989). When choosing a name for the probe, Atomu was reportedly among the top contenders. The probe was ultimately named Hayabusa, but like Atomu, it was capable of acting and thinking on its own.

A small robot weighing only half a ton but loaded with the latest technology, Hayabusa's feat is unprecedented, thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of the project team that controlled it. The undertaking has earned praise around the world. We believe Hayabusa has clearly shown us what Japan can--and should--aim for.

Although outer space is just one vast vacuum, the fact that the probe was able to successfully complete its 6 billion-kilometer journey on only a modest amount of fuel owed to its state-of-the-art engines, epitomized Japan's technological prowess.

During its seven-year mission, Hayabusa faced many crises. Especially when communication was lost for seven weeks, or when its four engines malfunctioned, it looked like the probe was doomed. But the engineers and researchers overcame these problems and kept Hayabusa functioning.

Junichiro Kawaguchi, who led the project team at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said: "Our determination and patience were tested to their limit. And we prayed, too." The mission taught us that anything is possible so long as everyone on the team joins forces and refuses to give up.

But more than anything, Kawaguchi has reminded us of the importance of setting the goal high and daring to go for it. "We wanted to do something that nobody in the world had done yet," he said.

Initially, Kawaguchi's team was tasked with doing technical tests on new types of engines. But when the asteroid probe was added as a new, ambitious aim, it brought out latent technological and research capabilities of JAXA's engineers and mission controllers.

Japan can rightfully boast its world-class technology. There is no question that Japan's future hinges on how the nation develops and makes use of this special gift. We need to set exciting goals that will fire up young people, which in turn should help further advance our technology and groom the next generation of researchers and engineers.

We must give it a try. At least we owe that to Hayabusa.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 16