Japan asteroid capsule lands in Australian outback

On 6/15/2010 1:02 AM, Dan Birchall wrote:
Subaru Telescop photographed Hayabusa spacecraft
June 13, 2010

"During the busy time preparing the observations, Doctor Masafumi
Yagi and his team managed to maneuver the telescope just in time to
catch Hayabusa before it disappeared down south in the twilight sky.
At that time, Hayabusa was a little less than half way between Moon
and Earth. Five seconds exposures, each spaced by 35 - 50 seconds in
the V filter with Suprime Cam, it showed up in clear trace at the
position expected to be. Brightness is estimated to be only 21
magnitudes. At this level, one can see a background galaxy clearly."

I get a kick out of the concept that it "will take Japan weeks or months
to determine if any asteroid soil samples were returned by the probe."
Now, everyone knows that around 48 hours after that return capsule gets
back to Japan, JAXA is going to figure out if there's any sort of
asteroid soil in it.
I sure hope there is, as that was one mighty slick and daring mission,
and to see them pull it off on the first try would really be something.

Pat

I get a kick out of the concept that it "will take Japan weeks or months
to determine if any asteroid soil samples were returned by the probe."

Assume the planners and schedulers gave the team weeks or months time and
budget to make the determination - Then it WILL take weeks or months to make
the determination!

On Jun 15, 10:32*am, Pat Flannery wrote:


One of theirs has returned to Earth; one of ours has been crawling
around on Mars for six years.

Now Pat, I think crawling is way overestimating the speed.

Interestingly, most Mars scientists I've spoken to would happily have
sacrificed the rovers for even a small return package. Pictures are
nice but I guess getting hands on is a higher priority for the
scientific mindset.

On 6/15/2010 6:15 PM, tom Donnley wrote:

Now Pat, I think crawling is way overestimating the speed.

Interestingly, most Mars scientists I've spoken to would happily have
sacrificed the rovers for even a small return package. Pictures are
nice but I guess getting hands on is a higher priority for the
scientific mindset.

We already have several samples of Mars in the form of those meteorites
that originated there.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:

On 6/15/2010 6:15 PM, tom Donnley wrote:

Now Pat, I think crawling is way overestimating the speed.

Interestingly, most Mars scientists I've spoken to would happily have
sacrificed the rovers for even a small return package. Pictures are
nice but I guess getting hands on is a higher priority for the
scientific mindset.

We already have several samples of Mars in the form of those meteorites
that originated there.

But the scientific value of a sample that was eroded and contaminated
on Earth is not the same as that of a sample brought back in a controlled
environment. A sample returned from Mars would indeed be very interesting.


Alain Fournier

(Pat Flannery) wrote:
On 6/15/2010 6:15 PM, tom Donnley wrote:

Now Pat, I think crawling is way overestimating the speed.

Interestingly, most Mars scientists I've spoken to would happily have
sacrificed the rovers for even a small return package. Pictures are
nice but I guess getting hands on is a higher priority for the
scientific mindset.

We already have several samples of Mars in the form of those meteorites
that originated there.

It's entirely possible (likely, even?) that we have meteorites from the
same parent body as Itokawa, too.

--
djb@ | Dan Birchall, Night Operation Assistant, Subaru Telescope/NAOJ.
naoj | Views I express are my own, obviously not those of my employer.
..org | Our atmospheric inversion layer keeps silly people below 3000m.

On 6/16/2010 4:24 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:

We already have several samples of Mars in the form of those
meteorites that originated there.

But the scientific value of a sample that was eroded and contaminated
on Earth is not the same as that of a sample brought back in a controlled
environment. A sample returned from Mars would indeed be very interesting.

They were in good enough shape that their Martian origin could be
determined by the composition of gas bubbles in their interiors.
Getting samples back from Mars has a peculiar double-edged aspect to it;
on the one hand if there is no life on Mars, then you've spent a lot of
money on getting a fairly uninteresting rock collection.
On the other hand, if there is life there, do you really want to bring
it back here to Earth? The Martian meteorites probably spent a long time
in space before their orbits intersected that of Earth, and all the
solar storms they encountered would probably sterilize them.
But the idea of bring the Mars samples back would be to keep them in as
pristine as possible shape, and that might be a little _too_ pristine in
regards to any lifeforms they have in them.

Pat

(Pat Flannery) wrote:
On 6/16/2010 9:38 PM, Dan Birchall wrote:

It's entirely possible (likely, even?) that we have meteorites from the
same parent body as Itokawa, too.

There are some meteorites that are thought to be from Vesta:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/perm...nets/vesta.php
The trick would be to track down which particular asteroid a particular
meteorite comes from.

Of course - but some asteroids are thought to have resulted from
collisions of larger bodies (Itokawa among them, I think?) so if the
composition turns out to match some class of meteorites really well,
it'll be interesting.

--
djb@ | Dan Birchall, Night Operation Assistant, Subaru Telescope/NAOJ.
naoj | Views I express are my own, obviously not those of my employer.
..org | I only wear black so much because I can't find anything darker.

On 6/16/2010 9:38 PM, Dan Birchall wrote:

It's entirely possible (likely, even?) that we have meteorites from the
same parent body as Itokawa, too.

There are some meteorites that are thought to be from Vesta:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/perm...nets/vesta.php
The trick would be to track down which particular asteroid a particular
meteorite comes from.

Pat

On 6/17/2010 7:19 AM, Dan Birchall wrote:
Of course - but some asteroids are thought to have resulted from
collisions of larger bodies (Itokawa among them, I think?) so if the
composition turns out to match some class of meteorites really well,
it'll be interesting.

That still relies on them getting a sample back inside the capsule;
although they are hoping that's the case, they didn't think the sample
grabbing system worked right at the time of the landing.

Pat