A badly damaged and unmanned asteroid explorer will make its belated return to Earth this weekend, releasing a sample capsule in the remote South Australian desert.
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa was launched by the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science in 2005 to obtain surface samples from Itokawa asteroid, but a fuel leak and damage to its chemical engines caused significant delays to its return. Scientists are now carefully planning the capsule release over the Woomera Prohibited Area on Sunday night.
Despite frequent loss of communication with the spacecraft, repairs were conducted allowing the Hayabusa to hobble home, three years later than planned. It has extensive damage to its parts including two broken reaction wheels, so getting the craft home is a major achievement in itself.
But the real prize could be found in the 17 kilogram delivery capsule, which will hold the asteroid surface samples if the collection process was successful. Uncontaminated by terrestrial contact with Earth, samples from the travelling asteroid could reveal important chemical and mineral information about as-yet hard to reach parts of the universe.
The Hayabusa has a live blog tracking its return journey to Earth’s atmosphere.
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