| Posted: Oct 23, 2013 | |
Asteroid space cannon ready for test | |
| (Nanowerk News) Japanese scientists readying to blast a crater in an asteroid to find out what it is made of said Wednesday they have successfully tested their new space cannon. | |
| The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the huge weapon would fire a metal bullet at the surface of asteroid 1999JU3 some time in 2018. | |
| The Hayabusa-2, which will launch the weapon, will then land on the surface and take samples of the newly-disturbed soil as part of a project searching for organic materials or for any sign of water. | |
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| Hayabusa-2 (Image: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) | |
| “The Hayabusa-2 project is progressing as planned,” a JAXA spokesman told AFP. | |
| The craft is set to be carried into space next year by one of JAXA’s dedicated H2A rockets, which are launched from southern Japan. | |
| The probe will be flung on a trajectory that its operators hope will take it into the path of 1999JU3 four years later. | |
| The unpoetically-named 1999JU3 is thought to be more likely than many asteroids to harbour the building blocks of life. | |
| Once it has reached its destination, Hayabusa-2 will hover above the asteroid to release the space cannon, which is intended to drift gently towards the barren surface. | |
| As the weapon floats down, Hayabusa-2 will make its way around to the other side of the asteroid, where it can shelter its delicate sensor array from any flying debris or shrapnel. | |
| With its mothership safely out of the way, the canon will detonate itself, hurling a large bullet-like object into the surface below it. | |
| After the dust has settled, Hayabusa-2 will return to inspect the crater, touching down on the asteroid’s surface where it will scoop up samples for analysis back on Earth. | |
| The probe is expected to find its way home some time in 2020, carrying with it a valuable scientific load that is expected to be seized on by scientists. | |
| The pristine materials the blast will expose are an essential part of the puzzle for researchers trying to understand how planets are formed, and — possibly — will help them to learn about the way lifeforms could arise, JAXA said. | |
| Hayabusa-2 is a successor to the original “Hayabusa”, a deep-space probe that picked up asteroid dust from a potato-shaped space rock and returned to Earth 2010. |
| Source: AFP |
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