Japan Launches Asteroid Mission
 
Dec. 4, 2014: On Dec. 3, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
successfully launched its Hayabusa2 mission to rendezvous with an asteroid,
land a small probe plus three mini rovers on its surface, and then return
samples to Earth. NASA and JAXA are cooperating on the science of the
mission and NASA will receive a portion of the Hayabusa2 sample in exchange
for providing Deep Space Network communications and navigation support for
the mission.
 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/rosetta/20141118/rosetta20141118-full.jpg
 
Asteroid Explorer "Hayabusa2" is a successor of
"Hayabusa" (MUSES-C), which revealed several new technologies and
returned to Earth in June 2010. Image Credit: JAXA and Akihiro Ikeshita
 
Hayabusa2 builds on lessons learned from JAXA's initial Hayabusa mission,
which collected samples from a small asteroid named Itokawa and returned
them to Earth in June 2010. Hayabusa2's target is a 750 meter-wide asteroid
named 1999 JU3, because of the year when it was discovered by the
NASA-sponsored Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project, Lexington,
Massachusetts. This is a C-type asteroid which are thought to contain more
organic material than other asteroids. Scientists hope to better understand
how the solar system evolved by studying samples from these asteroids.
 
"We think of C-type asteroids as being less altered than others,"
says Lucy McFadden, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Bringing that material back and being
able to look at it in the lab - I think it's going to be very
exciting."
 
On Nov. 17, NASA and JAXA signed a Memorandum of Understanding for
cooperation on the Hayabusa2 mission and NASA's Origins, Spectral
Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer
(OSIRIS-REx) mission to mutually maximize their missions' results.
OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch in 2016. It will be the first U.S.
asteroid sample return mission. OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the
500-meter-sized asteroid Bennu in 2019 for detailed reconnaissance and a
return of samples to Earth in 2023.
 
Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx will further strengthen the two space agencies'
relationship in asteroid exploration.
 
The missions will also help NASA choose its target for the first-ever
mission to capture and redirect an asteroid. NASA's Asteroid Redirect
Mission (ARM) in the 2020s will help NASA test new technologies needed for
future human missions for the Journey to Mars.
 
Comets and asteroids contain material that formed in a disk surrounding our
infant sun. The hundreds of thousands of known asteroids are leftovers from
material that didn't coalesce into a planet or moon in the inner solar
system. The thousands of known comets likely formed in the outer solar
system, far from the sun's heat, where water exists as ice.
 
Larger objects like dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres also formed in the outer
solar system, where water ice is stable. Pluto and Ceres will soon be
explored by NASA missions New Horizons and Dawn, respectively. Asteroids
and comets are of unique interest to scientists, though, because they could
hold clues to the origins of life on Earth.
 
These missions have greatly increased scientific knowledge on Earth about
our solar system and the history of our planet. Many scientists suspect we
could find organic material in asteroids and comets, like amino
acids-critical building blocks for life, which could help answer questions
about the origins of life on Earth. These questions drive us to continue
exploring the intriguing asteroids and comets of our solar system.
 
Multiple missions that are operating in space or in development by NASA and
international partners could bring us much closer to answering that
question in our lifetimes and also help identify Near-Earth Objects that
might pose a risk of Earth impact, and further help inform developing
options for planetary defense.
 
Follow the latest missions and discoveries at:
http://www.nasa.gov/asteroid-and-comet-watch/
 
Credits:
Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science{at}NASA
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

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