Current status of Hayabusa
Thu Feb 5, 2009 at 10:11 UTC
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is doing its best to operate the asteroid explorer Hayabusa to return it to Earth in June 2010.
After leaving the orbit around the asteroid Itokawa, the ion engine was cut off on October 18, 2007 to complete the first phase orbit maneuvering for returning to Earth. Since then, Hayabusa has been in a coast flight, but yesterday the ion engine was reignited for a powered flight at 02:35 UTC after activating its reaction wheel and establishing the three axis attitude control.
JAXA will continue to gradually accelerate Hayabusa until around March 2010 to carry out the second phase orbit maneuvering for returning it to Earth.
From April to June 2010, JAXA will guide Hayabusa, which will have reached much closer to Earth by then, to further come near to the Earth's orbit with higher accuracy, and plan to carry out the re-entry of its capsule into the atmosphere in June 2010.
The total accumulated operation time of the ion engine reached 31,000 hours, and the total engine generation for orbit maneuver was 1,700 meters per second (m/s) to date. Hayabusa has still enough thrust power and propellant. Some 400 m/s more of engine generation for orbit maneuvering is necessary for returning to Earth.
| Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | |
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