Little more than two years ago, in June
2010, one of the most astonishing space missions of recent times
ended when Japan's Hayabusa mission landed samples of an asteroid
in the Australian outback.
The successful outcome had beaten all the odds. The robot probe
suffered engine failures, a loss of fuel and communication
breakdowns on its seven-year, six billion kilometre trip to explore
an asteroid called Itokawa.
But the drama of the mission, and its triumph over adversity,
inspired the nation. Now Japan's space agency Jaxa is planning a
new mission, Hayabusa 2, to land on another asteroid and look for
clues as to how life on Earth began.
The latest issue of Physics World, which carries
a special supplement about
physics in Japan, tells how the first Hayabusa was
welcomed like a prodigal son by the nation's people. Tens of
thousands watched on the Internet as it came home, streaking
through the night sky over the South Pacific.
And more than 100,000 people queued to see as the capsule
recovered was taken on a tour of Japan. By some miracle, it had
accidentally collected some specks of asteroid dust despite failing
to fire bullets that were intended to collect samples.
Hayabusa 2 will be launched in 2014 on a mission to touch down
on its target asteroid, labelled 1999 JU3, in mid-2018. It will
then return to Earth in 2020, hopefully with samples for scientists
As soon as Hayabusa 2 reaches the asteroid, it will fire
fingertip-sized bullets into its surface and collect the fragments
blasted out. After moving to a safe distance, it will then detonate
an impactor module, which will fire a 2 kg projectile into the
asteroid, creating a crater 2.7 metres across.
Hayabusa 2 will then return to the crater to collect what should
be pristine samples from the earliest days of the Solar System,
unexposed to space weather and solar radiation.
Space scientists believe that the asteroid may have preserved
water and amino acids that will support the theory that asteroids
and comets were instrumental in bringing life to Earth.
Shogo Tachibana, a principal investigator for Hayabusa 2, said:
"We're not saying that we can find the origin of life on Earth.
Rather that asteroids preserve the history of the very early solar
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