Asteroid reaches the Earth!

Wil Hayabusa contain asteroid material?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Not sure, there's some muck which could be anything, to be honest..!

    Votes: 3 37.5%

  • It might have, but it fried on re-entry!

    Votes: 5 62.5%
  • Total voters
    8
McZiderRed

McZiderRed

Champion Elect
Supporter
... possibly. :D

The Japanese craft, Hayabusa, was launched to obtain some asteriod material. It landed on said asteroid, allegedly grabbed some asteroid material and has now apparently returned to Earth. The trouble is, they don't know if the craft managed to grab any asteroid material or not! :unsure:

Here's the full story >clicky-san<<

They're going to retrieve the craft in daylight, tomorrow. So, what do you think? Will the Hayabusa contain asteroid material or just, err, space?!
Vote in the pole above and we'll see if our pseudo-democratic verdict is correct when they open the craft...
 
As I understand it, the "collection device" consisted of some sort of "horn" which was pushed into the asteroid.

As it will be mostly rock and other hard substances, I fail to see how it can have collected anything.

I therefore vote no.
 
The Hayabusa spacecraft's capture mechanism was supposed to shoot a ball bearing at Itokawa when it landed to kick up rock inside a collection horn. An analysis of telemetry data suggests this mechanism may have malfunctioned at the crucial moment.
Click to expand

facepalm.gif
 
Brogan said:
The capsule has been opened and.......there are a couple of tiny dust particles which might be from the asteroid but could also be from Earth LOL
Click to expand

So, it looks like our poll result "Not sure, there's some muck which could be anything, to be honest..!" was correct!
They could have just paid us the money and saved themselves all that bother... :dontmentionit:
 
Brogan said:
As I understand it, the "collection device" consisted of some sort of "horn" which was pushed into the asteroid.
Click to expand

Sounds almost as advanced as James May's 'new earth' collection device on the first episode of the most recent series of top gear!
 
Unfortunately there appears to have been something of a 'hiccup':

Hayabusa's capture mechanism was supposed to shoot a ball bearing at the asteroid when it landed, to kick up rock and particles inside a collection horn. Unfortunately, an analysis of telemetry data suggests this mechanism may have malfunctioned at the critical moment. Therefore any debris found inside the canister could be due to the inadvertent opening of it before it left Earth, or tantalisingly; particles thrown up during the landing on Itokawa.

So, I've gone for the 'Not sure' answer!
 
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