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Hayabusa arrived at Itokawa on 12 September where it will hover 20 kilometres above the asteroid to map its size, shape and volume, and to determine its surface composition.
The probe will then be lowered to a height of seven kilometres, where it will map the surface in more detail. Hayabusa will fire pellets into the asteroid's surface and collect about a gram of the ejected material. A small surface hopper called Minerva will be dropped slowly onto Itokawa where it will leap about the asteroid for one or two days, taking surface temperature measurements and high-resolution images.
The sample of ejected material will be parachuted back to Australia in the summer of 2007. This will be the first time a sample has ever been collected from an asteroid and returned to the Earth.
Itokawa is a 600 metre-sized, potato-shaped asteroid, named after Hideo Itokawa, a Japanese rocket pioneer. Recent images taken by Hayabusa show the contrast between hilly and smooth regions on the asteroid's surface. By studying these features, we may learn how the asteroid formed.
Hayabusa was launched on 9 May 2003 from Japan aboard an M-V-5 rocket. The mission was originally called MUSES-C, but the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) later changed it to Hayabusa, which is Japanese for falcon. The craft will act much like its namesake, descending to the asteroid's surface, capturing its prey and returning it to Earth.
Whilst our scientific knowledge of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) will be significantly improved by Hayabusa, the primary goals of the mission are to test four new technology systems: the ion drive engines; an autonomous navigation system; the sample collection system; and the sample capsule that re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.
More info: Hayabusa at JAXA
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