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@NASA
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

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