Aster › Space program › Itokawa
Itokawa
Position on the route: 8/130 · level needed 28 · journey (Mk0 engine) 4.3 h
By the numbers
| Length | ≈ 535 m |
|---|---|
| Year | 1.52 years |
| Type | S-type, silicate |
| Sample | ≈ 1,500 grains, 2010 |
The story
Itokawa is a small near-Earth asteroid found in 1998, named for the Japanese rocket pioneer Hideo Itokawa. Hayabusa (JAXA) reached it in 2005 and became the first craft to touch an asteroid and sample it; the trip was full of trouble, the touchdown nearly failed, fuel leaked and contact was lost, but in 2010 the capsule landed in Australia.
An ‘otter-shaped’ rubble pile: boulders and gravel loosely heaped. The capsule held about 1,500 microscopic grains, which proved the link between ‘S-type’ asteroids and ordinary meteorites and showed 4.6 billion years of the Solar System’s history.
Missions
- Hayabusa (JAXA, 2003–2010): the first asteroid sample
Colony note
Silicate and metal; a loose rubble pile. A mining outpost.
What probes bring back
- Hayabusa (JAXA, 2005) was the first craft to touch down on an asteroid and sample it; the capsule landed in Australia in 2010 (about 1,500 microscopic grains).
- About 535 m long, an ‘otter-shaped’ rubble pile; the grains are about 4.6 billion years old.