Asteroid Itokawa Sample Return   
       
   Dec. 29, 2010:  The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa   
   spacecraft has brought home to Earth tiny pieces of an alien world-asteroid   
   Itokawa.   
       
   "It's an incredible feeling to have another world right in the palm of your   
   hand," says Mike Zolensky, Associate Curator for Interplanetary Dust at the   
   Johnson Space Center, and one of the three non-Japanese members of the science   
   team. "We're seeing for the first time, up close, what an asteroid is actually   
   made of!"   
   [...]   
   Hayabusa photographs its own shadow on asteroid Itokawa in 2005 prior to   
   collecting samples from the big space rock. [more]   
       
   He has good reason to be excited. Asteroids formed at the dawn of our solar   
   system, so studying these samples can teach us how it formed and evolved.   
       
   Hayabusa launched in 2003 and set out on a billion kilometer voyage to   
   Itokawa, arriving a little over two years later. In 2005, the spacecraft   
   performed a spectacular feat -- landed on the asteroid's surface(1). The hope   
   was to capture samples from the alien world.   
       
   But there was a problem. The projectiles set to blast up dust from the surface   
   failed to fire, leaving only the particles kicked up from landing for   
   collection. Did any asteroid dust made it into the collection chamber?   
   [...]   
   The return of Hayabusa went exactly according to plan, according to JAXA: full   
   story. Zolensky and other eager scientists, with eyes riveted skyward, watched   
   the answer plunge back into Earth's atmosphere at 27,000 miles per hour on the   
   night of June 13th, 2010. Hayabusa's main bus shattered over the Australian   
   outback during reentry, and the intact sample return capsule drifted to Earth   
   via parachute.   
       
   "We were mesmerized," says Zolensky. "As we waited for it to land, no one even   
   moved."   
       
   But the waiting was only just beginning. Because attempting retrieval of the   
   capsule in the dark was too dangerous, he spent a sleepless night before   
   getting a closer look.   
       
   "I was one of the first people to board the helicopter that flew to the   
   landing site the next morning. And I was the first person to walk up to the   
   capsule."   
       
   He had to stop within 10 feet of it. More waiting.   
       
   "I watched the retrieval team recover it. They wore face masks and gloves and   
   blue padded suits. They had to disable the unexploded parachute release   
   charges, and that was pretty nerve wracking. Then they picked up the capsule   
   oh so carefully and placed it in a box."   
       
   The precious cargo was flown via charter jet to Japan for analysis. Guess who   
   was waiting for it when it arrived?   
       
   "I was ready to work," says Zolensky, who along with fellow team member Scott   
   Sandford of NASA Ames Research Center had traveled to Japan for the opening.   
       
   "The first results were disheartening. When we scanned the capsule with a   
   modified CAT scan, there appeared to be nothing inside."   
       
   Next, Japanese members of the team painstakingly dismantled the capsule, piece   
   by piece. "They had to use a micromanipulator to avoid contamination, and the   
   process took months."   
       
   More waiting.   
   [...]   
   Electron microscope photos of material found inside Hayabusa's sample return   
   container. Red arrows point to particles from the asteroid. [more]   
       
   "Once we got inside the capsule, we could see dust on the interior walls. I   
   thought to myself, 'we've got asteroid dust here!' But there was still a   
   possibility the contents could be contamination from launch or reentry and   
   landing."   
       
   The next step was to remove and analyze the particles -- another agonizingly   
   slow process, and more waiting.   
       
   "The particles are each smaller than the diameter of a human hair. We finally   
   used a Teflon spatula to sweep out a large number of tiny particles."   
       
   Though most of the particles are still in the capsule, the team has removed   
   and analyzed 2000 of them with an electron microscope.   
       
   And?   
       
   "At least 1500 of them are from the asteroid! We're seeing pieces of another   
   world. It looks like a very primitive type asteroid. We'll tell you more in   
   March at the 2011 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston."   
       
   This is only the third time ever that samples of a solid extraterrestrial body   
   have been brought back to Earth. The Apollo astronauts and Soviet Luna robots   
   were first - they brought us samples of moondust. And NASA's Stardust   
   spacecraft returned samples of comet Wild 2 in 2006.   
       
   "The Japanese people are thrilled, and so are we. The emperor even requested a   
   personal tour of the capsule. This is their Apollo mission. They're showing us   
   all a new world!"   
       
       
   Author: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More Information   
   Web Links:   
       
   Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa -- JAXA mission home page   
       
   Identification of origin of particles brought back by Hayabusa -- JAXA press   
   release   
       
   Bringing Hayabusa Back to Earth -- JAXA feature story   
       
   End Notes:   
       
   (1) This is only the second time an asteroid landing has been achieved. The   
   only other time in history a spacecraft landed on an asteroid's surface was   
   when NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker spacecraft landed on   
   asteroid Eros in February 2001.   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.59   
    * Origin: NCS BBS (1:3828/7)