The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has received financial backing to proceed on development of Hayabusa 2 – a spacecraft designed to collect samples of asteroid 1999JU3.
The Hayabusa 2 is a follow-on probe to Hayabusa 1 that surveyed asteroid Itokowa in 2005 – successfully returning to Earth tiny grains of the space rock in June 2010.
According to JAXA officials, Hayabusa 2 would be rocketed into space in fiscal year 2014, reaching its target four years later, in 2018. The probe is expected to return to Earth in 2020, hauling specimens of asteroid 1999JU3 back to eagerly awaiting scientists.
Much was learned during the seven year voyage of Hayabusa 1 – with some changes likely in the follow-on spacecraft.
The Japanese government is granting 3 billion yen in fiscal year 2011 for JAXA to push forward on designing the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft.
By LD/CSE