JAXA has opened applications for scientists worldwide to
participate in the analysis of tiny particles returned to Earth by the original Hayabusa spacecraft in 2010.
The Japanese government has also
given support for JAXA's tentatively named
Hayabusa-2 mission. Hayabusa-2 is planned to leave Earth in 2014 or 2015, reach unnamed asteroid 1999 JU3 in mid 2018, and remain on the asteroid until the end of 2019. It should then return to Earth at the end of 2020.
The original Hayabusa spacecraft was launched by JAXA in 2003 and, with the help of Australian scientists, it
touched down in the Woomera Prohibited Area in June 2010. Although it did not capture as large a sample as originally planned, it still came back to Earth with thousands of tiny particles from asteroid Itokawa that have never been exposed to Earth's atmosphere.
Hayabusa was a remarkable scientific achievement, and the first successful attempt at collecting and bringing back samples from an asteroid. During its seven year journey, the 510kg spacecraft travelled over two billion kilometres and collected samples from asteroid Itokawa. As part of this unprecedented voyage, a target marker was left on the asteroid Itokawa with the names of 880,000 individuals from 149 countries – including 5,420 Australians – to record for all time the interest in the mission from all over the world.
Since the return of the Hayabusa capsule, collected particles have
yielded interesting results including that the asteroid’s ‘skin’ had been exposed to solar wind and cosmic rays for less than 10 million years, meaning that the asteroid is considered very young in solar system terms. JAXA's new
Announcement of Opportunity gives scientists from all around the world a chance to analyse more of these tiny particles and contribute to our understanding of the universe. Applications to the 1st International Hayabusa Announcement of Opportunity are due on 7 March, 2012.
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